Sweet as Candy
by M. Mellow
Summary: A portal opened up in her world and she entered another dimension filled with pirates who may be very well just be a sociopath. She has two choices before her: get killed or go insane.
1. Chapter 1

**Sweet as Candy**

…

_By: M. Mellow_

_Edited By: Naash_

…

((Chapter 1))

The women lips curled into a snarl and she struggled to get her tight cuffs bounding her hands. 'Tch, sea stones cuff, that damn Akainu…' she bitterly thought, knowing that her efforts would be futile unless she got the god damn keys. She was shackled at the center of the Marine boat's deck, the chains lodged sturdily through a curved iron structure that weighed 3 times her weight, an obvious impediment through her escape plans. Commander Akainu, the captain-in-charge had more brains than she would like to give credit for.

Sensing the smug grins and unwanted attention from the lower ranked marines, she gave an animalistic low growl which caused the weaker marines to retreat a few step backwards in fear.

'Cowards…' she angrily thought, satisfied.

At that moment, a strange silence enveloped the area. Suddenly, all marines stood upright, feet scuffled urgently to form two straight lines and saluted in unison. In the space in between the two lines, the object of her hatred came, walking with a relaxed gait towards her. She felt her facial features pull in a scowl, eyes narrowed with rage and body emanating hatred.

"Now, now my dear lady, is that how you treat your superior?" he spoke out, his hands gestured for her to calm down which only served to make her body give forth more hatred.

"Akainu…" She spat out his name in disgust, she wished dearly to see this man burn alive, slowly and painfully. Yes, by just imagining their tortured scream of agony together in hell where both of them belonged, her face couldn't help but be contorted with pleasure. "Won't it be fun if you and I could play a bit more in the depth of hell? You'll make such a cute pet," She cooed and upon looking at his displeased face, she felt giddiness bubbling up in her stomach. Her shoulder's started to shake, trying to repress her jubilation until her shrill-like laughter sliced through the tense air.

"She's gone crazy…" one marine whispered to another.

"She lost her loved ones after all…" another marine said in a hushed tone.

It was said that she continued to smile even after her death.

~.~

"SAH-RA! SAH-RA! SA-SA-SA-SA-SAH-RA!" A girl called out, a bounce in her step as she caught up to her brooding friend. "Maaa, don't tell me you're still mad!" The girl smiled sheepishly. Sahra continued to ignore her and walked farther away from her. Candy could only stare at Sahra's small retreating back.

Candy sighed and jogged to catch up to her friend again, her navy blue school skirt swishing with every step she took. "C'mon Sahra, I know I made you worry last night, but I'm okay see!" she tried to prove her point by cart-wheeling right next to her, "Hehe. Perfect right?" she gave her a toothy smile. But she only heard her friend sigh in return. Her eyes twitched slightly in respond; she was starting to get slightly irritated from getting the cold shoulder treatment for such a long duration of a time.

Then Candy smiled mischievously, she stopped in her track while her friend relentlessly continued to walk with or without her. She readied her stance, crouched down, and began to pounce on her friend to give her a nice big hug. As she leapt, in mid-air, a strange blue portal appeared right beside her. She tried to stop her jump, but as the force of kinetic theory goes, she couldn't stop and the portal greedily pulled her in.

"Sahra! Help!" She wailed and frantically tried to doggy paddle her way out of the bluish black-hole like force. At that point, her friend turned and their eyes met only for a brief second, before her vision was flooded with white light.

It was a strange feeling really. Her body felt weightless, there was no wind to signify whether she was descending or ascending. She couldn't hear anything sans the rapid beating of her heart. She didn't know how long she was in here, but her body felt heavy, her chest tight, and her eyelids started to flicker and it was only a matter of time until she slowly drifted into a deep slumber.

"I'm going to be late…for… school…" she managed to mumble out before her whole world turned black.

~.~

"Penguin! Why aren't we going under yet?"

"The pressure hasn't stabilized yet; if we go under too prematurely we'll definitely have some major leakage!"

"Well hurry! They are throwing garbage at us!"

"Ah! Shut up Shachi! I'm trying, god dammit!"

They both yelped, as the submarine shook. They could hear the small metallic clatter hitting their submarine.

"Why are they even shooting garbage?" Shachi exclaimed, as he braced himself for another direct hit.

"Damn, the garbage is weighing us down! Bepo, you have to try to clean the garbage off. Buy us some time!"

"I don't wanna…" Bepo whined.

"Bepo!" yelled Penguin and Shachi simultaneously.

The white polar bear named Bepo looked crest-fallen and his ears flopped down in respond. "I'm sorry." He sadly said and made his way out of the submarine.

Both Penguin and Shachi looked at each other and felt a tad guilty for both yelling at their comrade.

"I'm… sure he'll be fine…" Penguin started. "Right?" he looked at his other crewmate for reassurance but Shachi only shrugged in respond.

~.~

As soon as Bepo opened the hatch, he crinkled his nose in disdain. He quickly covered his nose with his two paws, "Eet snells so bad!" it took him some minutes to tolerate the smell and digest the amount of garbage littering about. "I wish we had a cabin boy…" Bepo sighed as he began kicking away the trash off the submarine.

Meanwhile, the captain of the submarine tried to appear calm but ever so slightly flinched every time garbage made impact to his beloved submarine.

His patience was wearing thin.

~.~

"Damn, don't let those pirates get away!"

"Yes sir!"

"Isn't Trafalgar Law a Shichibukai, should we be doing this?" one of the Marine soldier quietly gossiped to his fellow mate.

"I'll be damned if a pirate sets foot in my territory and gets off scot free. Shibukai or not, a pirate is a pirate! They are nothing but trash in this world" A deep voice responded to the gossiping marines, and he stared them down coldly. The gossiping marines could only quietly yip in respond.

"Oh, so that's why we're throwing garbage! That's a good one Captain!" one of the gossiping marine soldiers laughed nervously.

The captain glowered at his soldiers, "Yes, it is. Now get a move on it!" his voice boomed loudly throughout his marine fortress.

"Y-Yes sir!" the gossiping marines stuttered out and scurried to the catapult area, loading the garbage as fast as they could.

The captain sighed as he looked around seeing his men hard at work. This was a small base, but its tall steel walls are what made it almost impenetrable. But that damn Law used his devil fruit power and left a gaping hole in his walls! His fists tighten and he started to well up with tears, "My beautiful walls, hang in there, I will patch you up good as new…after I bring down that blasted pirate who did this to you!"

~.~

Candy woke up with a start, her head felt heavy, and her stomach queasy. As soon as she breathed in, she started to gag and her eyes water. The smell was so horrid, it was worse than dirty diapers and rotten eggs put together! She covered her mouth and nose with her hand, and heard a gruff voice yelling. She, then, realized that she was surrounded by trash, and proceeded to dig her way out for fresh air. She popped out of the pile of who-knows-what, and she was face with a nervous young boy clad in a sailor uniform.

"Oh hello, could you help me out of here?" Candy smiled as brightly as she could, after all, she didn't want to leave any bad impression to the boy considering she was in garbage and reeked of garbage.

"a… a… he…ad…a…" the boy could only stuttered out.

"Fire!" another marine soldier screamed.

"Huh, wait what?" her eyes bulged out, and the boy mirrored her expression. Before she had time to scream stop, she felt her whole body hurling in the air.

"KYAAAAAaaaaaahhhhh…hhh…hh…h" Candy's scream echoed halting most of the activities in the Marine fortress.

"S-s-sir!" The boy heaved, "We just potentially catapulted an innocent bystander!"

The marine soldier who launched the attack panicked and placed his two hands on his head and looked around frantically to see if anyone saw what he did. The captain approached the two and placed his burly hand on the boy's tiny shoulder. He saluted to the place where the girl flew, and everyone hastily followed his lead.

"This young girl's sacrifice will be respected for her contribution to the greater cause…"

"uh…" the boy could only stare dumbfounded at his captain.

"A true hero indeed!" The captain welled up in tears, and nodded solemnly.

~.~

Her body twirled in the air along with pieces of garbage she was catapulted with. Her eyes watered from the cold wind, and she closed her eyes from irritation. 'I guess it's not too bad to die like this. Wait… who dies from getting catapulted with garbage anyway?.. Face it, I had a good run…' There was no way she was going to survive this fall, so she decided to save her energy to reminisce her whole life. She sadly thought of all her accomplishments in life. Well, actually, the only one accomplishment she really had was catching a mutated salmon with an extra fin. Now that she thought about it, she was only 16 years old, and she didn't even have a boyfriend. Not to mention, she didn't even get to live through her whole high school life! Plus, she doesn't know what happened after the trippy blue portal…

"Wait a second!" Her face brightened up, "This must be a dream! That's it! All a dream! There's no way I would enter a blue portal, and end up catapulted in real life!" She started to laugh happily, "I'm going to wake up as soon as I die! Right?" she asked to no one in particular. Her body, then, started to make an arch and she began to hurtle down to the unknown. She closed her eyes waiting for the painful impact…but none came. All she was greeted was something soft and squishy.

Bepo didn't expect to catch a human from the air because he was pretty sure the marines wouldn't catapult a human girl to attack…would they? He quickly dropped the girl he caught with a thud and took three steps backwards. He raised his paws in a defensive position not knowing what to expect from this girl who fell from the sky.

Candy pulled herself up after she felt herself hit a metallic surface. She shook her head hoping to try to get the dizziness out. "Ouch, that wasn't a bad landing but how the hell did I survive that?" She opened her eyes and made out a white blob which she assumed was a head and a big orange blob which she was certain was someone's body. She rubbed her eyes to adjust her momentarily impaired sight.

"Thank you for catching me, Mr.…b-b-bear," she stated, taking a while to digest her words. "B-b-bear…AHHHHH!" she screamed out as loud as her lungs could take. She quickly crawled as far away from the white polar bear in an orange jumpsuit.

Startled, Bepo screamed as well, in which Candy mistook that as a battle roar before he would start feasting on her.

Luckily the hatch opened in time, and Penguin came out. "What the heck is going on out here with all this screaming? Bepo we're ready to go…" Penguin's voice drifted as he could only stare at the strange girl who was screaming her head off.

Candy saw the man with a Penguin hat, and she ran up to him. "Please help me, there's a giant polar bear wearing an orange jumpsuit. If you know anything about polar bears, they can devour an adult size male like they're cookies. Think about what he could do to me! I'm a girl. He would inhale me!" Her head felt like they were swirling, and she was sweating profusely.

"Ahk… the smell!" Penguin pinched his nose, "Calm down miss, we need to go under. Bepo, hurry up!"

"Go under…?" Now she began to register her surroundings and realised, with wide-eyes, that she was in the middle of the ocean, and she was standing on a metallic surface. "What…?" Before her mind could process any further information, Bepo lifted Candy up and they all entered the submarine.

"Ahh wait, wait, wait, wait!" she voiced out. But to her dismay, they chose to ignore her.

Suddenly their ship was hit with what they presumed to be another onslaught of trash.

"What's going on? Where am I?" Candy tried to ask, but her question was unanswered.

Instead, a voice. "We're submerging now!"

~.~

"So…" Shachi looked at his crewmates and then at the stranger. "You're telling me that she fell from the sky?"

Bepo nodded profusely.

"I-…" Candy started, and all three pairs of eyes were looking at her. "I didn't fall from the sky… well I did… but I mean… I…" She felt tongue-tied what with the guys looking at her.

Penguin sighed and he rubbed his temple. How are they going to explain this to the captain that they let a stranger board their ship without his permission?

"So… I see that the bear can talk! How about that? Hahaha…" Candy awkwardly laughed, but it died down as she saw their deadpanned faces. Candy gritted her teeth in thought, "there's no way this bear can talk, this must be a costume right?" She reached for Bepo's head only to be growled back in response. Her hand flinched, and she felt her body reduce in size.

"Well, I'm going to get the Captain, and try to figure out what we should do from here. Shachi, try not to get the stranger killed."

'Killed?!' Candy felt her whole body go rigid, before she could enter her panic mode; she was caught off guard when the polar bear began to speak to her again.

"You know, you smell really bad…" Bepo started.

Candy's fear was momentarily forgotten, and she didn't know why, but she felt so frustrated when a bear would talk to her about her own body odour when he was…well an animal! "Hah?! My bad. You see, being crammed inside a load filled with garbage can do that to a person." Her forced smile felt like it was going to crack her whole face off.

Shachi could only sweat drop at the exchange between the bear and the new girl.

~.~

Penguin gave a soft knock on the Captain's door.

"Enter."

Penguin stepped into the Captain's quarter. It was nerve wracking because he did not know how he was even going to being to explain this to the Captain.

"Ah, Penguin," Law spoke out. "I see that our escape has gone smoothly?"

Penguin quickly snapped out of his trance. "Yes Captain."

"What's the status of our ship?"

"Everything is under control; we only sustained minimal damage of dents and scratches on our submarine, but that's to be expected."

"I see." Trafalgar Law was relieved that the report wasn't too serious, he sighed and waved his hand in dismissal, "You may be dismissed." A few moments passed by and Law still found Penguin to be standing at the same spot. He gave Penguin a questioning look. "You have something to say?"

"Well… you see… Captain. We also happened to retrieve something." That was a lot simpler than he thought it would be.

"Retrieve something," Law repeated, his voice beckoning Penguin to continue.

"Well… not something… more like… uh… someone."

"You managed to retrieve … someone… in the middle of the great sea?"

"… Yes." Penguin said, perspire trickling down his neck. The Captain's face was void of any emotions, and that made Penguin very anxious.

"I see."

There was a short period of deafening silence, until Law stood up from his desk and motioned penguin to introduce him to their new passenger.

~.~

'This must be a dream, Candy," She gave herself a hard mental slap. 'If this is a dream, why do I still feel like this is somewhat real? Oh god, Candy get a hold of yourself. You're losing your mind. So many outrageous things happened today. There is a talking bear. I'm in a submarine. I managed to escape death. No one could have survived that fall AND there is a talking polar bear. A bear is talking. None of this is normal!' And, yet, despite her mental breakdown, somewhere deep inside Candy's mind, believed that this is not just a dream.

"HEY!"

Candy snapped out of her reverie and took a step backwards. "Wah!"

"Show a little respect girl," Candy flinched when he called her a girl. Of course he was not wrong but she was a woman now or somewhat of a woman. Even then, he should address her in a less rough tone. "The Captain is here to see you."

Law gave Shachi an expectant look. "The report, Shachi."

"Bepo said she fell from the sky" Shachi pointed upwards with his index finger.

Candy's eyes widened as the said Captain of the submarine approached, his steps coming closer and closer. She took in his tall 6 foot physique, the weird smiley face design on the front of his sweater, and his blue jeans that had odd black splotch markings over them. 'What a weird outfit. Then again, his whole crew is wearing jumpsuits…'

Law stopped a few inches from her, and a dark shadow casted over his facial features. She noticed that his eyes were wet. "Um, are you okay…?"

Law didn't expect the smell to be so putrid. He could barely get a word out of his mouth without actually tasting her scent on his tongue. Having noticed her deep concern and stare, he quickly swivelled his body around, and started to walk out of the room.

"Uh Captain…?" Penguin called out, feeling a little strange by the Captain's odd behaviour.

"Penguin."

"Yes Captain?"

"Have this woman take a shower and give her something clean to wear."

"…"

"Then, bring her to my office."

"Yes Captain."

After the Captain left, Shachi and Penguin both looked at each before they bursting out into laughter.

"What's so funny?" Candy asked, having a strong feeling that they were laughing at her.

"Haha… did you see that Penguin?"

"Yah. This girl smelled so bad, the Captain couldn't be in the same room as her! Bwhahaha…"

After several minutes of non-stop laughing, in which it felt like an hour to Candy, they wiped away their tears and calmed down. Candy was still pink in the face.

"Come this way. I'll take you to the shower chambers." Penguin smiled, and turned his heel towards the doorway.

"Ah wait!" Candy quickly followed suit, but before she left the room, she turned back to throw a glare at Bepo. She still did not trust the talking bear yet. For all she knew, he might still want to eat her.

Bepo felt the daggers coming out from Candy's gaze and began to get nervous. He gave her a quiet apology.

Candy gave him a quizzical look in return before turning around to catch up to Penguin.

Shachi looked at Bepo, then Candy and then at Bepo again. "What's her problem?" Bepo only shrugged in reply.

~.~

"Hey, why did that bear apologize?"

"Oh, Bepo? He's strong but he has a really weak will…Try not to bully him, haha."

Candy could only sweat drop at that statement. She realized the corridor they were walking through is eerily quiet. Their footsteps echoed loudly and the occasional sounds of droplets of water added to the dark atmosphere. Candy involuntarily shuddered and tried to ignore her surroundings.

Instead, she let her mind replay the events that had happened to her so far. Today's events were a blur. First, she was going to school. Then, she was in rubbish, then not, then in a submarine with a bear and jumpsuit wearing people. She's surprised that she has not gone bananas yet. She missed home. She missed Sahra. If Sahra was here she would lecture her about always getting lost and being clumsy. Candy smiled at the thought but her chest started to ache and, without warning, tears ran down her face.

Penguin stopped as he heard a sob from behind him. He turned back to see her crying with her face buried in her hands. He took a step back in surprise. He was always bad at comforting girls when they cried.

"Uh, are you alright?" Penguin could only mentally slap himself. Of course she wasn't alright, why else would she be crying?

Candy continued to cry, and when she looked up to see his concerned face, she couldn't help but to cry harder. All the feelings she had held in till now, the confusion, the blue portal, the catapult, and the talking polar bear, just came rushing back to her. She just wanted to go home.

"Don't worry! The captain won't kill you as long as you have a good reason on why you're here. I mean uh as long as you can be of use to this ship until we drop you off the next island!" Penguin said hurriedly, waving his hand frantically in the air, hoping that that would help get his point across.

She let out a sniffle when, suddenly, his words registered in her head. "Wait… you said the Captain might kill me?" She sniffed while looking questioningly at Penguin with her dewy eyes.

He managed a nod as his heart beat faster and a blush crept up his neck.

At that, she wailed harder. "I don't want to get killed!" She slinked down to her knees, her arms useless and limp by her sides, and her mouth gaped open as she cried harder and louder.

Penguin desperately looked to his left and right. Right now, there was a hysterical crying girl in front of him, and no one is here to help. Every time he wanted to be left alone, one of his crewmates always barged in, and of course when he actually needed them, they are nowhere in sight. He didn't know what to do. So, he crouched down on the ground and gave her an awkward hug, patting her on the back to try to comfort her.

Candy started to blush at the unexpected warmth that enveloped her body. "Eh."

"Hah?" Penguin realized he was potentially sexually assaulting her and he was horrified.

"Uhm…" Her cheeks were still pink. She was never hugged by a boy before, unless you count the full nelson as a hug. The fear of their Captain possibly killing her was quickly forgotten.

Penguin quickly detached himself from her. "Look I'm not trying to make a move on you or anything…"

With the way he awkwardly moved away from her, and how his eyes constantly shifted, she couldn't help but to chuckle lightly. She sniffed. "Thank you, I sorta needed that. You know… hugs are good diffusers for crying girls?" She said.

"A-ah…" He stuttered and looked away from her, not quite registering what she was saying.

"I guess this whole situation seems like a mess to me. I just want to go home. I don't know how I got here, and I don't know how to get back home. I'm just so confused, and I don't know what to do…" Her eyes began to tear up again. "and now I'm blathering about my problems to a stranger!"

"It's fine…"

"What?" she sniffed and looked at him confused.

"I don't know your situation any more than you do. But I'm sure we can figure something out on how to get you home." Penguin again mentally slapped himself, why would he promise a stranger to take her home when he doesn't even know what the Captain's plan for her is?

"Th-thank you Mister…uhm…"

"It's Penguin."

Candy smiled at his name, "Thank you Mister Penguin." She wondered if that's what it feels like to have a boyfriend, being comforted and all. Her blush deepened at the thought. 'I shouldn't be thinking about such trivial things! Curse my puberty and hormonal instinct towards the opposite sex!' she inwardly lectured herself.

Penguin only blushed harder in embarrassment when the girl thanked him so warmly, 'this is why I can't deal with crying women…' He sighed tirelessly. "Let's get you cleaned up so you can talk to the Captain!"

"Ah… r-right!" The atmosphere between them somehow was getting awkward. They quickly stood up and marched mechanically to the shower room.

~.~

"Here are some clothes." He handed her the beige jumpsuit and she hesitantly accepted it. She stared at it awkwardly. It was a different colour than what the bear wore, but a jumpsuit none-the-less. "Look! These are our uniforms, so at least try to cover your dislike for them!"

"Ah! I don't particular dislike them but I'm sorry!" Candy responded embarrassed.

Penguin could only mentally slap himself for the umpteenth time. He was clearly acting awkward and he felt like he was on edge the whole time he was with her.

As Candy was sorting through the stack of clothes he gave her to find the perfect-sized jump suit, Penguin could not help but give her a thorough one-over. She was wearing a blue navy skirt, and a now dirty white blouse. She wore a blue tie that had the letters "S" and "A" engraved in gold. His eyes drifted up to her face, and he couldn't help but blush lightly at the way her sky - blue eyes were squinted in concentration and her eyebrows knitted in distress. Not to mention her blonde hair was tied up in a messy pony tail. Simply put, she was a mess, yet her childish antic made him look past her dishevelled state, and for a second there, she kind of looked cute.

"Hmm, I think this will be a good fit, Mister Penguin!" Candy brightly chirped, handing him over the rejected pile of jumpsuits.

Penguin snapped out of his trance, "Ah, right." He quickly cleared his throat and continued, "I'll be outside when you're done to take you to the Captain."

"Thank you!" Candy smiled brightly at Penguin. He could only bring himself to nod and quickly left the room.

Candy blushed lightly in embarrassment thinking that perhaps her stench was so bad he couldn't wait a second longer to be near her. "Somehow I feel like my woman hood is being stripped apart…" She sighed in defeat and entered one of the many rows of the shower stall.

~.~

Outside of the shower hall, Penguin could hear the water running and a light tune that the girl was humming. He was acting weird, and he couldn't understand why. Could this be love at first sight? He scratched his head in frustration, and leaned his body against the wall.

"Oy! Penguin!"

Penguin's eyes twitched in annoyance. He knew this voice very well.

"Earth to Penguin!"

"Ah shut up Shachi!"

"Geez, what's gotten in to you?"

Penguin's eyes started to twitch even more violently. Someone just had to come and disturb him when he wanted to be left alone.

~.~

Candy closed her eyes and felt the warm water wet her face and trickle down her body. The warm shower only temporarily blocked the ongoing questions that were racing in her head. But there was one feeling that seemed to always persist in her mind and that was the possibility of never returning home.

"Please God, let this all be a dream …"

~.~

"That's why I'm telling you! She must be a spy sent by the Marines!" Shachi argued, crossing his arms across his chest.

Penguin gave him an incredulous look. "You're saying that they would send a spy by throwing her through incredible height and distance along with trash?" Shachi nodded in approval, and Penguin just muttered, "That's crazy. Plausible but crazy…" He folded his arms across his chest. Both of them were in deep thought until the door to the shower room swung open with a bang. They both jumped back alarmingly.

"Mister Penguin I'm done…oh hello there." Candy said, noticing the same jumpsuit man that she had met earlier with Mister Penguin.

"Hello there Miss…?" Shachi began.

"Candy. Candy Bon-Bon." She replied shyly.

Penguin looked at Shachi, and then to Candy. "You're saying your name is… Candy Bon-Bon?"

"Yup!" Candy smiled.

"Isn't bon-bon another term for Candy?" Shachi asked.

"Hmm, I guess so. So that means my name would be Candy Candy!" she laughed lightly, "How about that?"

"Uh…Ok, Miss Candy…Bon Bon, I'll take you to our captain now." Penguin awkwardly walked ahead with Candy following suit. He looked back to his crewmate and he saw him mouth the word "spy." Despite Shachi's seemingly far-fetched theory, it was best to be cautious around the new girl. He took a quick glance at Candy, and noticed that she looked a bit nervous. Thinking about her previous actions, he remembered that she was a bit awkward when they first met. She didn't seem all that terrified taking into consideration that she could've died from falling from the sky. But then again she cried when he mentioned that the Captain might kill her. 'I suppose there might be a possibility of her being a spy. Her situation seems suspicious. I should give Captain the heads-up before he talks to her.' Penguin thought as he chewed the bottom part of his lip nervously.

Candy noticed Penguin acting more stiff around her. Every time their eyes met, he would quickly turn away. She shook her head and decided not to worry about the awkward exchange. After all, she's going to talk to the Captain of this ship…er submarine. And since Penguin had told her that the Captain might kill her if she was seen as a threat to him, the captain is definitely a very dangerous man in her books. She could feel her heart beating loudly against her ear. She was walking on thin ice. Hopefully, the Captain would believe her story.

~.~

They stood in front of the door where a small sign labelled 'INFIRMARY' was hung.

"Infirmary? I thought we were going to his office?" Candy asked, feeling more and more nervous by the second. Her imagination began to run wild of the possible scenarios that may occur, like the Captain giving her a truth serum injection, or a paralysis injection, or vivisect her if she was seen as a threat to him. Suddenly her knees buckled weakly, giving way beneath her and she dropped to the floor. She clutched her school uniform tightly against her chest. She breathed in and out as slowly as possible in order to calm the rapid beating of her heart.

"He's the ship's doctor, so it's only natural his office room is in the infirmary…" Penguin looked back only to see her on the ground shaking. "Hey… what's the matter…?" Penguin hoped this girl wouldn't cry again, last time she did, he hugged her awkwardly.

"I'm… I'm sorta scared… you know?" Her voice was wavering in fear.

"As long as you answer his questions truthfully, you will be fine." Penguin awkwardly placed his hand on her shoulder hoping this small gesture would help her calm down quickly. After all, they did make the Captain wait for quite a long time and the Captain was anything but a patient man. Candy could only nod in response. "Stay here while I tell Captain of your presence." Penguin received no respond from her, but entered the infirmary regardless.

~.~

"Captain, the girl is ready to see you."

"Good, bring her in."

"Before you talk to her, Shachi believes that she might be a spy from the Marines…"

Law could only chuckle darkly, "Interesting…" Penguin felt his spine stiffen; the Captain always did enjoyed things that relieved his boredom. Penguin went back outside to call Candy in.

"The captain wishes to see you now…"

"Y-yes. I-I'm ready!" Candy said, her voice cracking under pressure. Penguin twitched at her vulnerable state**.**

"You'll be fine, as long as you're honest…" Penguin stated, choosing to not add the part that if the Captain decided that she was a marine spy, the unspeakable would happen to her. Candy nodded with understanding and stood by the door. She slowly placed her hand on the knob. She gulped nervously and turned the knob, and opened the door.

~.~

Law inspected the stranger carefully. She seemed to be lacking hand, feet and eye coordination as she almost stumbled into his room. As she pulled herself up, she quietly tried to close the door. However, as Law fixed the door in a way that he would be able to hear intruders who would enter his room, the stranger's whole body flinched as the door gave a loud click instead. She turned around to face him, the fear in her eyes evident but she walked towards him with a weak smile plastered on her face.

Law smiled back to her, and motioned his hand for her to sit on the chair situated in front of him. She hesitatingly sat down, and placed her folded school uniform on the floor next to her. She sat in an upright straight position, folding her fingers neatly and placed them on her lap.

"Hello, Miss…?"

"Ah… erm… My name is Candy Bon-Bon, sir."

The ends of his mouth twitched upwards slightly, "What an interesting name Miss Candy. And please, call me Captain or Law." She could only nod in response. "Miss Candy, you should relax a bit. I don't bite." He smiled at her darkly. "…Much…" He enjoyed the way he was making her visibly uncomfortable.

Candy started feeling very hot, and, strangely, it was getting harder to breathe. She gulped inwardly and gathered her courage to look into the Captain's eyes. She felt her body freeze with shock at how dark and cold the depths looked. His mouth may be smiling but his eyes said otherwise. She took one deep breath, and told herself to calm down. She had nothing to hide, and perhaps this Captain could answer some of the questions she had.

"My…a-apologies Captain Law!" her voice cracked and she could only flinch at how pathetically scared she sound. She could hear the low chuckle from the Captain, and she could only smile nervously in respond.

"Well, Miss Candy I would just like to ask some questions. And please, no lies, I really do dislike liars," He said, in a smooth ominous tone.

"I-I don't plan to Captain…I'm an awful liar…" She still couldn't shake off the fear that was disturbing her very core. It was the way he was addressing her, she decided. Although he seemed polite at first glance, she could hear a mocking undertone teasing her. .

"Let's start with a simple question." Law directly looked into her eyes, and Candy couldn't look away, she only nodded in respond. "How did you get on my ship Miss Candy?"

"I got catapulted here Captain."

"Catapulted?"

"Ah yes… it seems they accidently catapulted me with garbage…" Law smiled widely, in interest. It's not every day a Marine would send a spy using a catapult.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sweet as Candy**

…

_By: M. Mellow_

_Edited By: Naash_

…

((Chapter 2))

Law leaned forward, propped both elbows on his wooden desk, intertwined his fingers and rested his chin. "Would you care to tell me, Miss Candy, the reasons of you being on the Marine Fortress?" Law questioned. So far, he could assess that she was telling the truth and he was beginning to have doubts whether she really was a spy for the Marines.

"I don't know…" She meekly responded and he could only frown at her response.

"In that case, _Miss Candy_," he pressed. " How did you get within the walls of the Marine Fortress? They are, after all, quite known for their _almost_ impenetrable defense." He felt a sense of smugness, the very same feeling he had when he had broken through the steel walls of the Fortress and drank in the look of distress from the Commander of Marines when the Commander realised that Law was a force to be reckoned with.

"I…don't know…" She repeated, her answers likened to a broken record. She was not too sure on how to answer his questions mainly because she did not have the answers to that herself.

A small frown appeared on Law's face. 'This is going nowhere,' he thought to himself. 'I should try a different approach'.

"Miss Candy, my comrade is under the suspicion that you may be a Marine spy. Seeing my previous… history with the Marines, I may agree with him." With this, he watched her closely, analyzing her reactions, however small they may be, a twitch of an eye, a nervous gulp, broken eye contact, anything. A tiny slip up that could give her away her true intentions or her lies. Instead, Candy only looked confused.

"Captain, before you continue any further…may I ask you a few questions?" Candy asked, carefully.

Law raised an eyebrow. He had not expected that kind of response from her. He nodded silently and motioned for her to continue.

"First question is… what are marines? Are they like the navy forces?"

He stared at her for a while, seemingly trying to give her question some thought but in actuality he was wondering whether she was playing him? Everyone knew who the Marines are, but her confused face seemed almost too genuine. He cleared his throat and briefly broke eye contact. "The marines are basically an army run by the government."

"Ah… exactly like the navy…" she muttered, nervous from his intent gaze. That meant she was in the army camp before she was catapulted. "Then…" She returned his gaze. "Are you one of those people who are against the government?"

Law's face could only darken. This girl was either incredibly stupid or she was playing him for a fool to let his guard down. Well, he would play along for now. His lips twitched upwards. "Yes, Miss Candy. After all, the people on this ship are pirates. Heart Pirates to be precise and I am their Captain." He spoke slowly to spell out where she was and who she was talking to, he hoped this was enough for her to stop playing games with him.

"P-P-Pirates?" Candy looked sceptical; she searched his face for any signs of him pulling her leg. Were there still pirates in this day of age? She vaguely remembers learning that in certain parts of the world there were still living, breathing pirates, but what are the chances of her coming across an actual one? "So, you speak in pirate jargon, and sail the sea, and pillage the village…and stuff…like that?"

"Not particularly, I'm sure some pirates do, but my crew and I are travelling to the new world to search for One Piece." Law calmly answered.

"The new world? One Piece? Pirates? Talking bears?" Candy could feel a headache coming along. "There's no way I'm still awake. I must be dreaming…I wanna wake up!" She swung her head down onto her lap; she grasped her head with her hands and began to chant to herself to wake up. She was fully aware of the smell this room emitted. The bleach smell, that they used to sterilize medical equipment, was starting to make her stomach churn. She, soon, began to breath in quick shallow breathes in order to calm her riotous heart beats. Her eyes started to dart across the room to the rows of white beds, metal walls and metal floorings. Her anxiety increased as she could not recognize her surroundings and a chill fell on her as the room, spacious as it was, felt like it was slowly caving in on her, suffocating her.

Law's watched as he saw the girl struggle to breathe or, in a better word, get a hold of herself. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. She appeared to have no knowledge of her current situation or the world she was living in. Is there such a person who can grow up in ignorance of their own world?

He cleared his throat yet again to catch the girl's attention.

Candy stopped chanting, and she looked up to see the Captain's face. Her expressive eyes widened. "I'm not waking up…" at first her voice started out as a whimper, small and weak, but it quickly escalated to a scream as she mentally broke down. "Oh God! I'm not going to wake up! I'm not going to see Sahra! I'm not going to see my parents! I want to go home!" She stood up abruptly from her chair, causing her chair to rock on its two hind legs and toppled backwards. "I want to go home!" She repeated, she could feel her sanity slipping away. She couldn't see the captain anymore, she couldn't see anything anymore. She felt her body become heavy and she felt her body lean against something warm. "Help," she murmured, before slipping away from her consciousness.

Law was alarmed by her sudden outburst but quickly recovered. Before she could harm herself, he injected her with a sedative before her panic attack escalated into something worse. He sighed, leaning back in his chair. The questioning did not go as smoothly as he hoped. He looked down at her face, noticing that even while unconscious her face was in clear distress.

A smile grew steadily on his face. He was waiting for something or someone to cure his chronic boredom, and this girl definitely knew how to entertain him at least until he was bored again. He lightly brushed a strand of hair from her face. "Don't worry Miss Candy, you won't escape from me that easily…" he chuckled quietly.

~.~

Candy's body felt heavy. She wanted to open her eyes but it felt like someone was forcing them shut. She tried to lift her arms but it felt as if they were made of heavy iron.

Suddenly, she became more aware of her surroundings as she heard two voices close by. She concentrated on their voices and managed to hear bits and pieces.

"watch…eat…"

"…don't wanna…"

"Bepo!"

She stirred slightly at the sudden outburst. The name 'Bepo' sounded oddly familiar to her and her mind tried to put a picture to that name. At first it was a swirl of white and orange, but little by little, she started to put small features on that blurry image. Her heart beat quickened and despite her initial feeling of being weighted down, adrenalin coursed through her blood and she abruptly sat up.

Both Bepo and Penguin jumped at the girl's sudden movement, but recovered just as quickly.

"Why… why is there a bear?" Candy darkly asked, head pulsing. She felt awful and her stomach was churning to her disdain.

"This was originally Bepo's room, but he offered you his bed to sleep on." Penguin quietly replied, hoping he wouldn't distress her too much. The captain did tell him to not to agitate her too much.

"Shouldn't I be in the infirmary?" Candy pondered loudly, her head throbbing less.

"Well, considering you had a panic attack in that room, the captain thought it would be in the best interest for your mental health to wake up in a different room other than the infirmary," Penguin nonchalantly replied.

Although it didn't make sense on why they would make her stay in the bear's room much less why the bear would need a whole room to himself; but, the answer seemed to satisfy her enough. Her head fell back to the pillows, and she sighed in comfort. She supposed it was nice to wake up in a cozy room rather than the infirmary. The last time she was in there, the infirmary room smelled like bleach, and there were rows of bed with identical crisp white sheets cover. The mood of the room was cold, monotonous, and lifeless, just like the Captain. She inwardly grimaced at the thought.

She sighed and slightly turned her head to the left and saw a bed side table adorned with a small salmon statue. The statue was a freeze frame of a salmon jumping out of the body of water. She smiled lightly, remembering her camping trip with her family where she caught a mutated salmon with a third fin. She could feel her eyes grow moist and quickly blinked it away.

Bepo noticed Candy staring at his prized statue, "That's my favourite salmon statue. The captain gave it to me for my birthday!" Bepo spoke out, it was his first sentence after she had gained consciousness. Candy did not give the bear a response. Thinking that she did not like the fact that he was a talking bipedal bear, he descended his gaze to the ground and gave an apology in a small voice.

That caught Candy's attention. She casted a quick glance to Bepo and felt a wave of guilt overcome her at the sight of his bent floppy ears and dejected form. She didn't know why the talking bear was troubling her so much. She already had enough problems to worry about; she felt the talking bear was just an icing on the cake.

"How are you feeling?" Penguin brought a chair and placed it right next to her. He noticed the tension arising from both Bepo and Candy and tried to disperse the negative atmosphere as best as he could.

Candy responded accordingly, "I feel awful. My head feels heavy, and I feel like I don't have any energy at all. I don't really remember what happened when I was talking to the Captain…" For some reason she felt at ease when she talked to Penguin. He kind of reminded her of a brother she never had, his eyes weren't as cold as the Captain's and his presence felt warm and inviting.

"Sedatives do that to you." Candy's ears perked up, she looked up at him, confusion written all over her face.

"What do you mean by sedatives?" Her voice slightly wavered.

Penguin gulped, he was wondering if he stepped on a mine that was filled with explosives. He hoped she wouldn't have another emotional break-down. He knew he had to tread carefully in that topic. The captain warned him that she is emotionally unstable. "Well, you were having a panic attack, and Captain had no choice but to use the sedative so you don't hurt yourself."

Never in her life has she felt so embarrassed. She must have acted like a complete psycho. She buried her face with her hand. She took pride in trying to be strong and keeping cool when things got out of control. Her friend and her family described her as hyper but level-headed when she needed to be. But, here she was having multiple mental break downs and psychotic outbreaks left and right.

"Are you alright?" Penguin asked nervously, but Candy couldn't bring herself to answer him.

She felt a warm stream of steam hitting her hand. She slowly moved her hand away from her face, and she saw the same white polar bear she feared holding a tray with a bowl of soup and a roll. She sat up slowly from her bed, and accepted the tray.

"When I feel sad, food tends to make me feel better." Bepo felt a bit nervous because he could smell so much hostility towards him.

Candy was amazed how such a simple gesture from the bear could lighten her chest. "T-thank you…" she felt sort of guilty that she judged the polar bear harshly when all he's been doing today was trying to make her at ease. Sure, a talking bear is abnormal but everything that had happened to her so far, should she really be fearful of a talking bear? She took the spoon and dipped it in an orange-brown liquid. The smell was sweet, and it was only after she took a small sip that she realized how hungry she was. She dropped the spoon on her tray, and took the bowl and pressed it against her lips. Despite the hot temperature she drowned the soup in one gulp ignoring the small burning sensation in her mouth. It had a nutty sweet flavour to it.

Penguin could only look at her in amazement of how fast she drank the hot soup. Candy sighed and wiped the soup residue on her mouth with her sleeve. She looked back at Penguin and smiled sheepishly, "I guess I didn't realize how hungry I was… but I feel a lot better… now." Penguin stared at her for a while, before he laughed lightly.

Candy blushed slightly and smiled at both Penguin and Bepo. She was desperately clinging on to the sense of security and normalcy that she was so accustomed to in her world that when she experienced this entirely new and weird situation, she didn't know how to handle her confusion and fear. But the fact she was able to communicate with these people, and that they are trying to understand her feelings, it made her realize they were humans like her (except for the bear, he's just an anomaly). At that point, despite the silly, obvious and insignificant acknowledgement, it managed her to give her some peace of mind.

"I…" Candy started, and both Penguin and Bepo looked at her curiously. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I have caused you…"

Penguin was shocked to hear a sudden apology from her and he patted her head unconsciously. Candy looked at him curiously while holding her head where he patted her. He quickly looked away and said, "You just reminded me of a kid who lost his favourite toy, so… I just…" he laughed nervously with a small blush creeping up to his cheeks. Candy looked at him, at first with a blank expression before she smiled happily at him.

"You're kind of like an older brother!" Candy giggled, and Penguin looked aghast. Somehow his chest tightened when she referred to him as a family member.

He smiled weakly, life drained out of his face and said, "Well, I have work to do now, and the captain said he would like to talk to you more when you're up for it…" He stood up from the chair and wobbled across the room to the door. "So get better soon…" He silently opened the door and left the room leaving Candy and Bepo together.

Candy looked inquisitively at Bepo and asked "He looks a bit ill?"

"Hmmm…" Bepo pondered.

~.~

'A brother! A brother?' Penguin dragged his feet as he made his way to his quarters. He laid on top of his hammock. He knew that Candy didn't mean any harm when she said he was like an older brother to him. But he still couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that she didn't see him as a possible love interest.

At that thought, Penguin quickly stood up and blushed deeply. 'Woah… Woah…' he thought, hands gesturing in a stop movement. 'Did I just say that I wanted her to think of me as her love interest? What is wrong with me?' he silently cursed. He barely knew the girl for more than a day and already he was acting as if he was head over heels for her.

"Yo Penguin, Lunch is ready!" His thoughts were quickly interrupted when Shachi burst into his room.

Penguin sighed, "You're too loud Shachi." He put his fingers against his temples and massaged it, rubbing the area in circular motions. 'I really need to find a place where people won't bother me.'

~.~

An awkward silence shrouded the room.

Bepo shuffled his feet awkwardly, eyes declined to the floor before deciding to make his way to the corner of the room where he sat on his makeshift bed. Candy took in the neatly folded blanket and a pillow on the bed. "When you're ready to talk to the Captain, I'll take you there," he hurriedly said, breaking their silence. He, then, looked down at his feet unable to look at Candy anymore.

Candy fiddled with the hem of the bed sheet and remembered that, just yesterday, this was his bed. She felt guilty for taking away his sleeping area. She gave out a heavy sigh and swung her legs to the edge of the bed, landing her bare feet on the cool floor. She quietly made her way to the bear, where she stood in front of him and tried to calm her erratic heartbeats. She racked her brain to try to figure out what she should do or say next.

Knowing that she would see the bear throughout the duration of her being on this ship (assuming the captain would let her stay in the submarine without throwing her out in the middle of the sea), she could not continuously fight with him during her stay. After all, she should overcome her fear of bears. She breathed in deeply and decided to at least be accustomed to his presence.

Bepo just gave her a quick glance and averted his eyes when their eyes made contact. Candy gathered her courage and took a seat next to him. No words were shared between them until Candy cleared her throat to get Bepo's attention. "You know, where I come from, Bears are really scary…" Bepo did not say anything and fiddled with his paws. She continued on, giving him what she thought was a cheeky smile. "But you know. A bipedal talking bear! That's new!"

Bepo eyes started to water as he thought that she hated him for being a bipedal-talking polar bear. He muttered an apology, but Candy slapped his shoulders in response. "There's nothing to be sorry about! I think you're cool, you know?" She tried to give him a reassuring smile.

Bepo gave her a small smile in return and another bout of silence ensued. Candy could only perspire nervously. Conversing with this bear is harder than she thought. She cleared her throat once again, and this time she decided to open her heart to him, figuratively speaking of course. "I sort of feel like a loner." Bepo looked at her curiously and listened on. "Sort of like I don't really belong here, and I want to try to be your friend, but it's hard to make new friends when I feel like this." She pulled her legs closer to her chest, her eyes became more distant.

Bepo thought about what Candy said for a while before he softly said. "There aren't many lady bears, or bears like me. At least I didn't meet them yet during any of my adventures. But, this pirate crew is like a family to me so I don't feel so lonely." Candy looked up to him and Bepo continued on. "So maybe you should find a family too." Candy smiled slightly; it was a simple suggestion but a hard suggestion to accomplish.

"I suppose so." Her thoughts began to wander. She was beginning to come to terms that maybe this unknown world is not a dream after all. And so if she had entered this world, it should be possible to leave this world as well. Her eyes trailed the room in thought until it fixed on the salmon statue. A sudden realization dawned on her. "Did you know Bepo?"

"What is it?" Bepo asked curiously, he noticed the shift in her scent.

"Salmons always find their way home. No matter how far the distant, they always find the place they were born…" Candy smiled, her parents told her that when they were talking about their favourite fishes. After all, that topic of conversation was completely normal considering her family owns a fishing business. Candy fisted her hands tighter, she may not be a salmon, but her parents always teased her for having a 6th sense like the salmons. She made a new resolution, she wanted to learn more about this world, and perhaps she will find some clues on how to return back home. If she gave up now, then the people she loved, would they not be sad for her sudden disappearance? She won't give up. Not now. Not ever.

Bepo's stomach started to grumble, interrupting her thought. "Sorry, I got hungry when we talked about salmon…" Candy blinked twice, dumbfounded, before she started to laugh out merrily.

"Bepo, thank you!"

Bepo looked at her oddly, not sure of what she was thanking him for.

"I feel a lot better now!" she giggled as Bepo smile brightly in response. He could no longer smell the hostility, fear and loneliness from her anymore. For some reason, she smelled like the fresh sea breeze, it was a refreshing and calming scent.

"I think I feel better enough to talk to your captain now." Bepo nodded and stood up. He held out his paw to her, gesturing her to take his paw. She looked at his outstretched paw, and hesitated for a moment. She felt like if she were to take his paw now, she's going to fully accept that this reality is not a dream anymore. She gritted her teeth, and shook her head hoping to shed her insecurity away. She looked into Bepo's eyes with her new found determination and accepted his invitation.

Surprisingly, reality was a soft padded paw.

~.~

"Ah, Miss Candy, welcome back. I'm hoping you rested well?" Law gestured her to sit on the chair opposite him. His eyes caught a significant difference in her whole presence compared to yesterday; she seemed a lot more chipper today.

She sat down and took notice that this was a different room from where she was last time. This room had a bookcase, a desk, and a small bed in the corner. It also didn't reek of medicine or bleach which was a plus for her because the smell always gave her a slight headache. "I did Captain Law. I admit I didn't expect the bear to have his own room…" She said.

"Bepo's stature is slightly too big to fit comfortably in the hammocks in the crew's quarter." Law looked directly into Candy's eyes. "I trust Bepo did not bother you much, Miss Candy?"

She quickly waved her hands frantically to disperse his words. "No, no! Bepo helped me a lot; he's not a bother at all."

"Good." Law responded shortly. There was a short silence, before Law started the conversation again. "Now, Miss Candy, I would like to continue where we had left off yesterday."

Candy nodded back.

Law folded his hands and placed them on top of the desk. "I noticed you do not seem to have any basic knowledge of the world you live in. Why is that?"

Candy sweated nervously, leave it to the dark captain to not waste any time in asking such a direct question. She started to chew over how she was going to explain this to him without her sounding crazy. If she said she came from another world, she strongly suspects he may lock her up in the brig (because all pirates have that?) and label her as mentally unstable. Or even worse, leave her to drown in the middle of the sea because he could not bother taking care of a supposedly mentally ill passenger. The thought of her fate left a huge lump in her throat. She had two choices, to lie or not to lie. He did say he hated liars. But…maybe a white lie won't be too bad?

"You see Captain. I'm not from the same world you live in."

Law looked at her, his face clearly interested in what she had to say. His body leaned forward to hear more of her explanation. Candy cleared her throat to get rid of the persisting lump that she felt in her throat. "I was locked away."

"Locked away?"

Candy mentally smacked herself, she was going to re-enact the whole fairy tale of a locked up Disney princess with some holly wood sort of a twist, but she can't back out now once she started. "You see, I was a bastard child of a noble. My step mother hated me thinking that I was tainting their picture perfect family image." She took a quick glance at the captain to see if he was still interested. She could not read his expression at all and he had not said anything to stop her preposterous story…yet. Somehow, his cap with the odd spots printing design was starting to leave a dramatic effect on his face. The bill of the cap casted a shadow over his eyes, and it magnified the emotionless and coldness of his stares. She shuddered involuntary, but cleared her throat to stay on track. "She locked me in a back room. You see, the house I grew up in was huge. And there are places where people just don't visit. For as long as I could remember I never stepped a foot outside…" Her white lies were starting to dangerously weave a strange and complicated tale. "There was a butler though, who brought me food, and new clothes every now and then. He taught me how to read and write, but he couldn't stay with me long enough to actually have any meaningful conversation. I guess the fairy tales I read in my childhood became my reality."

Law listened in carefully, the story seemed outrageous, but her look was very solemn and her eyes distant as if she was trying to recall her memories as accurate as possible. "How did you escape Miss Candy?" Candy stared back at him; she opened her mouth to respond but she didn't know what to say. She did not expect him to ask her that question.

She racked her brain for a possible answer, and she felt a small light bulb appear over her head "One night, the butler freed me. I begged him that I wanted to step outside just for once. But my step mother found out. Scared what it will do to her image, she ordered the butler to send me away." Candy closed her eyes, "I remember him apologizing to me before he stuffed me into a crate."

Law was tapping his finger against his desk. His eyes narrowed, she was lying. He doubted she would arrive at the marine fortress without the Marines doing some security check on the crater. "Did your crate arrive at the marine fortress, Miss Candy?" Candy nodded in reply. "And you're telling me, you got out of the crate and was catapulted with garbage?" Law continued and Candy could only nod without much of a thought. There was a cold silence and she could feel the hairs rise at the back of her neck. Something dreadful was coming and she didn't want to wait to find out what. "So, how _did_ you free yourself from this crate, and managed to get catapulted, Miss Candy?"

Her face drained of all colours; she didn't think this far out into the story yet. "Uhm, you see." she smiled trying to cover her panicking mind. "The marine soldiers opened the crate, but they didn't really check inside. Since I fell asleep, I did not wake up until I heard a lot of ruckus outside. So… when I woke up, scared of this new place, I quickly dove into a pile of garbage because I didn't know who these uniformed men were." She inwardly sighed, her story seemed pretty sturdy, and hopefully he would buy her story.

"I'm surprised you suddenly remembered how you got there, Miss Candy."

"I just remembered. I was too nervous, last time, so I couldn't think straight"

"I see…" Law stood up from his desk and strode towards her. His eyes fixated on hers. He reached out and placed his hand on her left cheek. She shivered, his hands were unusually cold. He slightly urged her head to tilt up and look into his eyes. She couldn't look away and the chilling grey orbs were staring right through her. She felt naked and vulnerable.

"Miss Candy. Have you ever heard of devil fruits?" Law hissed his question, and she shook her head 'no'

"You see, these devil fruits are rare and gives normal human beings like you and I, supernatural powers. My particular power lets me vivisect people without killing them." Candy could feel her heart starting to pump faster and beat louder. She didn't like where this conversation was heading. "I wonder…If I decapitated you, and make you watch what I can do to your body…wouldn't that be interesting?" He licked his lips and smile cruelly at her.

"I…" Candy started but was cut off when Law leaned his body closer towards her. He came up to her ear and whispered, "Didn't I mention that I dislike liars, Miss Candy."

She could smell the same bleach scent in the infirmary, "I… I'm not lying! It's the truth!" she felt her stomach churn.

Law drew back a little, enough for her to see his emotionless eyes once more. His mouth curled upwards. "Then let's hope for your sake, Miss Candy, you don't slip up." He ran a finger down her cheek before pulling his hand away. He slowly walked back to the chair behind his desk. The breath she did not realize she held was let out. Her heart would not stop thumping loudly against her rib cage. 'It's not too late Candy…' she thought, 'You can still come clean!' Her breathing, now, shallow. She saw him sitting down staring at her with such ferocious intensity. It was like a predator watching a prey, ready to pounce when she make the slightest mistake.

"Since you insist that your story is true. Do continue." His voice was smooth and very in control compared to hers.

"N-Now that I'm free from my step mother, I want to travel the world and learn about the world I live in…" She wanted to hit herself repeatedly, why did she make her situation much more complicated? She was starting to think that maybe telling the Captain the truth was the better option.

"I see." He could see her story falling apart in front of him. For example, if she had a troubling past, why would she say she would want to go home at first, but later on tell him that she would want to travel the world? Her eyes seemed more sincere the first time they talk than now. He smiled slightly, the girl in front of him was like an open book.

"S-so! If you could kindly drop me off at the next island…please…" her voice ended in a mutter.

"Miss Candy, you are right now a prisoner of the Heart pirates. I suggest you do not order the captain around as you please." She flinched, she did not realise that she was a prisoner.

"So… that means…" she was still confused, she did not feel like she was being treated as a prisoner.

Law gave her a gentle smile which made her feel more uneasy. "That means…you are working for the Heart pirates until I find out your true intentions." He finished the sentence for her.

"But…I…" she could only gape at him like a fish out of water, struggling to breathe. "I was telling you the truth, why…why do you want to know about me so badly?" she boldly complained.

"Boredom." Law muttered.

"Huh?" Candy said, thinking that she did not hear him correctly. 'did he actually say boredom?' she was even more confused.

"I hate being bored. And I know you're not telling me everything, but that's fine." His gentle smile suddenly twisted maniacally, "After all, what's the fun in finding out everything all at once?" He chuckled darkly.

She could only stare at him in awe. 'He's so messed up…' she never met anyone who actually loves to see people squirm in discomfort and toy with their emotion.

"Are you going to put me in a prisoner cell?" her voice quivered.

"No. You'll be working as a cabin girl."

"Do you trust me enough to walk around freely in your submarine like that, Captain…?" She actually preferred to be locked up than to clean.

He gave out a small breath before it turned into a chuckle. She felt like these pirates have been laughing at her frequently. "I assure you Miss Candy, you are of no threat to us."

"I… I could run away…when we land on the island!" she regretted saying that because his face turned dark.

"That would be a problem…" he drawled out, before she knew what was happening he called out, "Room." There was a blue sphere enveloping them. She stared around the blue bubble frantically, could this be the evil fruit or whatever it was called that he was talking about? She saw him drew a long sword out of his sheathe. She didn't notice such a long sword in this room, surprised, she toppled backwards on her chair. She was desperately trying to crawl back as far away as she could. Law rounded his desk with the sword in hand. She could only shut her eyes tight, and she could hear her heart beat rapidly beating in her head until she felt a light jab on her chest. Her body fell in deathly silence. She hesitantly opened her eyes and saw him holding a cubical container. Upon closer inspection, she screamed.

"Wh-how…why?" she could not speak properly. Inside the container, there was a heart. Her hand reached out before he gave it a light squeeze. "Ugh!" she grunted, she held her chest tight. The pain was unbearable.

"That was only a light squeeze Miss Candy." Her eyes started to well up in tears, she was completely powerless. "Your life is now in my hand, literally." He gave a low rumble of laughter. "I suppose you can't really escape without this, right Miss Candy?"

She could only grit her teeth, she was not exactly what you can call athletic back home, so she doubt she can fight a 6ft tall man in hand to hand combat. She had never felt so weak, and this world seemed so surreal to her, she fear she would not survive long enough to find her way back home. "You will report yourself to Penguin…" She immediately looked up when Law spoke out again. "He will tell you what your responsibilities are, and where you will be staying." She could not say anything back, she could not do anything except gawk at him and cling on to his every word. She was snared and the hunter had her by her throat.

"Do I make myself clear, Miss Candy?" she only had enough energy to nod. "Good, then you are dismissed." His hand gave a wave for her to clear out of his room. She stood up stiffly and staggered out the room in a daze.

After the door was quietly shut, he leaned back against his chair. He held up her heart high in the air for him to admire. "Entertain me well…Miss Candy." He smiled wickedly.

~.~

Upon leaving the room, Bepo approached her. It seemed that he was waiting for her outside so that he could take her back to his room after her meeting with the captain ended.

"How did the talk go with the Captain, Candy?" The polar bear happily chirped. She opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out. Her body was shivering, she was so cold, yet she felt beads of perspire rolling down the side of her face. Had it always been this hard to breathe, she wondered. Her vision started to blur, and she had a hard time grasping the fact that someone can take her heart out like this.

"Candy…?" Bepo looked worriedly at her; she smelled the same as when they first met again.

She heard Bepo's voice but it sounded low and in slow motion. Her breath was short. The reality that in this world someone could actually take her heart is becoming more and more apparent to her now. She collapsed to her knees, and felt something soft and furry grab her from completely falling over. She wondered if this bear also ate an evil fruit to be able to talk and walk on two feet with such ease. She felt something break inside her mind, the confidence to go back home was long forgotten. Her head felt light, she just wanted to sleep for a while.

Her eyes slowly closed and she was back into the world of darkness once more.


	3. Chapter 3

Dear Readers: Thank you for reading my story up to this point! Don't worry I'm not quitting this story. I really want to finish this...but I changed the summary because I do not want people to read my story thinking it's a complete comedy (I'm pretty bad with comedy) so be warned, this fic will get exceptionally darker, and well shorter. 6,000 words chapter, no one appreciates that! It's too long! So I'm looking back on my chapters I have already written and drastically cutting many scenes out! Anyway, enjoy :)

* * *

**Sweet as Candy**

…

_By: M. Mellow_

_Edited By: Naash_

…

((Chapter 3))

Candy was in pure darkness once again. She has been in this same dream many times before. A shadowed figure would approach her and she would have a hard time discerning its facial features or gender. One thing was certain, it stared _right through her_. As it came closer she realized that this strange being had no eyes. The shadow quickly molded into a shadowed human form, eerily a shadow of her to be precise.

She started to see this being ever since she collapsed after her heart had been taken away. She grimaced slightly in her unconscious state. The last few days had not been pretty for her. She remembered bits and pieces of the event, when she woke up, the captain would be in the infirmary reading a book. When the captain came close to her, her mind would scream for her to run, but her body refused. Her mind and body always felt disjointed, she no longer had control over her body, her life. When he took away her heart, he also took away her hope of being able to go back home. Without faith, without belief, what was she fighting so hard for?

With the idea of going back home so far out of her reach, her spirit naturally broke. Everyday became mundane, and repetitive to the point she no longer kept track of the days that rolled by. She could only hope for the quiet whisper of death to visit and finally silence her for all of eternity.

Metal chains shot out from the ground and snaked its way tightly around her ankles, hips, waist, arms and mouth, rendering her motionless. There was nothing she could do or say. Hopelessness was all she felt. She closed her eyes briefly and once opened, the shadow, her shadow was before her.

The staring match has begun.

~.~

Law was back in the infirmary with another book in hand, the girl was peacefully sleeping. She was ghostly pale, but it was to be expected considering she had not had a proper meal for the last six days. He snapped the book shut, he could not concentrate. He stood up from his desk and walked towards the unconscious girl. He took a seat on the chair that sat next to her bedside. He did not calculate such a strong reaction after he took her heart. She took every possibility to sleep if she could, and when she was conscious, her eyes were destitute of life. Many times has he had to refrain himself from euthanizing the girl, she was depleting all of his limited medical supplies.

He stared at the IV tubes that ran across her arm. He partially blamed his damn curiosity of this girl's origins. But he knew that there was a limit of sustaining a person's life when they have no intention to stay alive. He gave out a tired sigh and decided that he will give her two more days to somehow magically snap back into reality before he throws in the towel. He was bored, but he was not that desperate for entertainment. A simple fact of life: You lose some, you win some.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a soft knock. "Enter." The door slowly creaked opened, and a pair of white fuzzy ears popped out first. "Bepo, you may enter." The fuzzy white ears perked up, and soon the rest of the body appeared from behind the door and entered the room. Bepo was seen holding the salmon statue he gave him for his birthday three years ago.

"Good afternoon, Captain." Bepo walked over to his captain and Candy. He placed the salmon statue carefully next to her bed side table. Law only raised an eyebrow at this odd gesture. Bepo scratched the back of his head shyly. "I thought if Candy saw this, she might get better."

At that, Law's eyes softened. This bear was sometimes too kind for his own good. He has known this bear for a very long time, since childhood in fact, and he was considerate of others in his own way. "Bepo, what do you think of Miss Candy?" The sudden question took the bear off guard, he started to fidget his paws and his feet. Law was curious, to say the least, this girl had somehow managed to gain the trust of two of his oldest comrade in less than a day, the other being Penguin.

Bepo continuously pondered thoughtfully before he pounded his fist against his other opened paw. "We talked about salmons once and… well, she looked happy talking about fish!" Law again, could only raise an eyebrow at Bepo's answer. Bepo noticed the captain's confusion, and tried to re-phrase his feelings as best as he could, "We had a fish connection. See… you can learn a lot about a person by talking to them about fishes, Captain." Bepo smiled happily, satisfied with his answer.

Bepo was looking expectantly at him, thinking that he answered his question well. Law was silent before he choked out. "I see. Fish connection…" Having no idea what Bepo was talking about.

"Erm, Captain?" Bepo wanted to voice this out for the longest time, "Is she sick? Is she going to die?" Bepo did not want her to die, not when he finally found someone who loved salmons as much as he does. He still has many more questions he would like to ask her.

Law stared at the girl's face for a moment before giving Bepo the harsh truth. "Miss Candy has a condition that I cannot cure with medicine alone." Bepo's eyes instantly faltered, and that did not go unnoticed by Law's sharp eyes. "If Miss Candy wants to live, she must do so with her sheer will alone."

Candy started to stir in her bed, both Bepo and Law looked back at her. Her eyes fluttered opened, she was greeted by the white ceiling first. "C-candy?" She heard someone call her name, she craned her neck slightly to see the Captain relaxed on the chair, and Bepo standing right next to him. She had no energy to respond, but Bepo quickly brought the salmon statue into her view. "Look Candy! I brought the salmon statue!" He excitedly pointed it out, but upon receiving no reply Bepo's once lively mood died down. He was about to set the salmon statue back down on her table side, but to both Law and Bepo's surprise, her hand shakily reached for it. Bepo quickly brought the statue close enough for her to touch, and tears slid down the mute girl's face.

Law was satisfied with this reaction, who knew that this novelty item would come in handy? He needed one more push, to trigger Miss Candy and perhaps today was the day that she would snap out from her mental and physical state.

Candy touched the smooth surface of the pastel pink coloured salmon, her fingers feeling and tracing the details of the statue, the scales, the fins, and finally its face. A child's voice calling out for her parents, rang in her head.

"_Mama! Papa!" An 8 year old girl was running through the forest, her actions frantic._

_This morning, she had gone for a walk in the forest with her parents. They were walking along the forest trail when she got distracted by watching a snail sluggishly climb a tree. It took a few minutes for her to realise that she was alone at that part of the forest and her parents left her behind. _

"_Mama! Papa!" Her voice was louder and more desperate. Only the birds chirping in the distant replied her. "Ma…ma…" The girl stopped in her tracks, tears streaming down her cheeks like a running water faucet. "Pa…Pa…" She collapsed to her knees. _

_Today was her first fishing camp trip, and she was already lost. She continuously wailed to her lung's capacity, until her voice had died away. She could only manage a silent sob until she faintly heard the rush of the river. She quickly wiped away her tears with the back of her hands and ran to the sound of the river. She remembered that they had set up camp by the river bed. Walking along the river, she saw a familiar pitched forest green tent. She quickly ran towards her camp site as fast as her short legs could carry her._

_She looked around, "Mama? Papa?" she searched around the campsite and entered the tent, but to her dismay, it was empty. She felt her eyes well up in tears once more, but she heard her parent's voice in the distance._

"_Sweetie?" Her mother's sweet but distraught voice could be heard just by the bushes._

"_Mama!" She yelled. Seeing how dense the bushes were, she went on all fours and tried to quickly dig her way through the bushes. She immediately saw her parents, their legs were covered with grime and light scratches. Emerging from the bushes, she quickly ran to her mother's open arms and cried to her heart's content, finally happy that she had found her parents._

_Once they settled down in their camping site, she still had a heavy heart. She was still frightened by today's event. Noticing her discomfort, her father knelt down in front of her. "Sweetie?" The father gently called. She responded with a look. "Don't tell anyone, but I'm actually a wizard!"_

_The small girl looked sceptical. "Daddy, wizards don't exist!" she pouted, and folded her arms._

"_Ah but they do. After all, I casted a spell on you." Her father said, still maintaining the same gentle tone._

"_A spell?" Her attention was piqued. "What kind of spell?"_

"_It's a spell where you are protected by the great King of the Salmon!" Her father's voice boomed, and his face lightened with excitement. The little girl was still confused, she had never seen the great King of the Salmon, much less heard of it. "He's within you sweetie, he will protect you from getting lost."_

"_Protect me from getting lost…?" Candy murmured repeating what her father had said._

"_That's right, every salmon always find their way home. So the great spirit will always help you find your way home." Her eyes brightened with astonishment. She never knew her father gave her such power. _

"_R-really?" She asked, while hugging her father tightly. Her father smiled reassuringly, and patted her head. _

"Mama…Papa…" Candy muttered, her eyes over flowed with tears, "Mama…Papa…" she repeated, but her voice was louder and hoarse. She looked up at both the captain and Bepo, "Salmons…" she hiccupped, "always find their way home…" Bepo nodded, understanding the fish connection he once earlier talked about and he started to tear up as well.

Law was the odd man out, he was stuck between a crying girl and a bear. He has no idea why they were crying about a god damn fish. He released a sigh in annoyance. Her mental state had finally broken, she was crying hard, releasing all her pent up emotions of fear and hopelessness.

Bepo and Candy finally finished their crying session. After a few long minutes in Law's point of view, Law finally saw the same life in her eyes when he first met her. She was back.

He decided to give her some time alone to recollect herself. He stood up from his chair, "Come, Bepo." Bepo quickly obliged, giving a concerned one-over to Candy, who still had the salmon statue clutched in her hands.

Once out of the infirmary, Law smiled deviously. 'Now, Miss Candy, prove to me you were worth the trouble to save.'

~.~

Penguin heard the good news that Candy finally recovered, but she still needed to rest in the infirmary until her energy returned to what it once was. Regardless, Penguin felt his mood become as light as a feather, and, in return, he was grinning widely. Shachi noticed the dumb look Penguin was making, and was wondering if he was having perverted thoughts, it does sound like what Penguin would think of.

Shachi's ears twitched when he heard a low chuckle, unable to hold in his curiosity, he finally asked, "Yo Penguin, are you alright?"

Penguin noticing Shachi was in the same room as he was, stood up abruptly from his hammock. He was flustered, and quickly said, "uh, yea!"

Shachi looked at him suspiciously, "Were you thinking of dirty thoughts?"

"Wha- No! I was thinking of Ca…Cards…" Penguin quickly corrected himself before Shachi caught on. Too bad Shachi did catch on to what or rather whom he was thinking about.

"Ah, Candy, oops, I mean you said cars right?" Shachi said humourlessly. He was starting to feel irritated all over again, ever since he caught Penguin and Candy hugging in front of the shower room, Penguin has been acting weird: the gushy, lovey-dovey kind of weird.

"That's not it!" Penguin's voice sounded a lot rougher than he intended it to. "B-besides! I certainly don't think she looks cute, or have a nice smile…or have a melodious laugh…" Penguin's face went back to the day-dreaming mode. Shachi eyes went cold, and he began to slap his friend's face back and forth until he snapped out of it.

"O-Ow! What was that for!" Penguin rubbed both his cheeks, and he could feel heat radiating from it. He was sure both cheeks had a pink imprint of Shachi's hand.

"You were acting like a creep." Shachi's voice went dark, and Penguin could only feel a sweat drop forming at how scary his friend and comrade looked right now.

"C-creep? Me? A creep?" Penguin said, coughing up the words as if he was coughing up blood. Shachi nodded all too eagerly. "Well…Shut up Shachi!" Penguin said, jumping back into his hammock, made a few turns and settled, with his back facing Shachi. He reached over to flip the light switch off. "It's none of your business anyways!" he grumbled.

Shachi, whose hammock was situated right next to Penguin's stared at Penguin's back. After a while, he turned his body to face the ceiling. He knew he was being harsh, but with Penguin's history with women, he could not help but to worry. After all, this girl was Captain's, and Penguin will only get hurt when the captain throws away the girl, like the many people who could not keep him entertained any longer.

That is why, no matter what, he was going to show Penguin the unattractive side of this girl. Luckily some of his work was already done for him, Penguin likes girls with huge busts, and this girl had none. He smile wickedly, this was going to be fun.

~.~

It has been two days after she finally broke free from her mental prison. Although her mind has recovered, her body still took some time. Not to mention, since the captain's office was in the infirmary, she was spending a lot of time with him to her disdain. However, fortunately he did not interrogate her with questions of her past. She was forced to drink a lot of water, and she started off with soft food.

She did not know that not eating for almost a week could make her stomach feel so sour. She remembered regurgitating the soup back out when consuming food for the longest time and to none other than at the captain of the Heart pirate. Needless to say, he was not pleased and if looks could kill, she would definitely be mutilated and have died multiple times by now.

She was sitting up from her bed, with the pillow propped behind her, mindlessly staring around the infirmary. She could occasionally hear the rustle of paper when the Captain flipped a page from a thick book of his. She noticed there was a row of round windows on one side of the wall. It was dark underwater, and she missed seeing the sunlight and breathing in fresh air. She gave out a loud sigh. She was bored out of her mind.

She looked back at the IV tubes strapped to her arm. The captain had told her that he will take it off once she could eat solid food and until then she was bed ridden. It was a weird feeling. The captain was so cold and uninviting most of the time. But when it came to her health, he was actually… nice? Maybe nice was not the right word to use, it was more like he actually cared about the patient he treated. Sure all doctors should, but certainly not a _pirate_ doctor?

Unknowingly she was blankly staring at the captain while she was contemplating this new found observation. She heard a cough, and she snapped out of her trance. She realized she was staring at the captain and the captain was staring at her back. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she quickly hung her head low. She had trouble facing the captain after that embarrassing moment where she was blubbering about salmon and crying her eyes out. She stared at her hand and promptly started to zone out. What does the captain want from her? After she tells him the truth, will he dispose of her in the middle of the sea?

She still had no clues on how to return home. To this day she wanted to give herself a good beating. She almost gave up on going home after her heart was taken. Thinking about how she barely escaped through death's grasp sent a shiver down her spine. Her heart may have been taken away, but her will to go home still existed within her. That is something the captain will never take away, he may be close to taking it away though. For now, she needed to find a way to be on the captain's good side, so she will live long enough to find her way home and get out of this twisted world. She had to thank Bepo though, if it was not for the bear, she highly doubted she would have made it through. 'Who knew the bear that I feared for would actually be my saviour? The irony.' She was deep in her thought once more and did not notice Law approaching her.

Law called out her name multiple times, but her head was still down, unresponsive. He made his way to her bed, and continued to call out her name, she was still unresponsive. Anger getting the better of him, he grabbed her chin and forced herself to look at him. Her face was in shock, "Miss Candy, I hate repeating myself, _please_ answer when I call you once." She gulped loudly, she did not hear him calling her at all. She could feel chills running down her body, he was in the evil pirate captain mode. Even though he was being polite, his voice was laced with venomous poison.

"S-sorry Captain." She managed to utter out, the captain let go of her chin and sat down on the chair next to her.

"Miss Candy, I noticed you have been spacing out a lot."

"Huh?" She did not expect the captain to say that, "I was just bored…I tend to do that a lot."

"I see. It's natural…" He expected as much, they did say idiots tend to space out far often than normal. She saw the captain's face change, was it pity on his face? "Tomorrow, your IV will be off, and Penguin will inform you of your duties and responsibilities for this ship." He stood up swiftly from the chair, and left without another word.

"Good night to you too, captain." Candy mumbled.

~.~

The next day, the captain did just as he said. He took off her IV one by one, and Penguin came in after he left. Penguin told her that she will be in kitchen cleaning duty most of the time, and mop the hallway when it was dirty. Basically, she was in charge of house-keeping. Her shoulders sagged depressively; she would rather be in prison than to clean. Plus, if she was a prisoner, why were they treating her like their own? But, she did not really mind that either. It was nice to have a place to belong, and to be needed in this world.

She had a small chat with Penguin about what happened during the time she was _out cold_, and he said they were still travelling to the next island. The conversation did not last long, because for some reason she found that Penguin could not maintain eye contact with her. She wondered if Penguin found her a nuisance, she wanted to ask what the problem was when another crew mate came into the infirmary. He had red hair and wore a turquoise hat with a magenta bill. He dragged Penguin away saying that the pipes were leaking in the bathroom, but before he left he gave her a dirty work.

She flinched. Did she do something to him? Penguin apologized before the said red-haired man shut the infirmary door with a loud slam. She stared at the closed door, confused. She ran her hand through her hair, and she realized she did not take a shower for almost a week. She probably smelled too, and her hair was oily to boot. She decided to take a shower, and then talk to Penguin about the strange distance he is keeping between them.

She swung her legs off the bed, and she could feel the cold tile gave out a tingling sensation to her sole. As she tried to put more body weight on her legs, her legs started to quiver. Her legs felt weak, and brittle, it made sense since she didn't use her legs for almost a week. She took one deep breath before putting all her weight at once, she stood for a moment before her leg gave and she fell with a thump. Just in time for the captain to enter the infirmary to see her less than graceful fall. It sucked that this was the captain's office, because the next thing she knew, the captain was cruelly smirking at her.

"Miss Candy, the floor is not your bed." She wanted to snap at the captain, she knew he saw her fall. He did not even offer to help, instead he strode past her and sat on his desk, opening his damn book again. She heaved her arm to lift her lower body but her arm was trembling as well. She collapsed once more, she flipped her body so she was lying on her back. She could feel the cool tile on her back, and she was working up a small sweat. Her body was useless, she needed to wait until she warmed up her body. She was wiggling her toes in the meantime. She just knew the captain was enjoying her struggle, and my god, was he ever.

~.~

After two attempts later, she finally stood up. Her body felt a bit numbed, but as she slowly walked around, her body started to move more fluidly. Happy with the progress, she looked at the captain who no longer paid any attention to her. She felt it was rude to just leave so she quietly said, "I'll be going now." The captain did not answer, but she paid no mind to it, she expected as much. She walked out of the infirmary, and for once she felt free. Being trapped with the captain was an uncomfortable experience altogether. He never made conversation and all she did was stare at things. She walked around the submarine, looking for the shower room.

As she slowly walked around, she realized that all the doors were the same and there were no door labels to indicate what room it was called or used for. She could not distinguish which was the shower room. She kept walking around mindlessly, surprised that she has yet to bump into anyone until, turning around the corner, she hit something hard. She rubbed her sore nose and looked upwards. Her eyes met with a wide chest wearing a black shirt. Her eyes climbed up from the chest to see a man staring back down at her. He had a weird flame like tattoo on his forehead and sported long shaggy black hair that reached up to his mid back. She was very small compared to him, she even suspected that he may be twice, no, thrice as big as Bepo the bear. "s-s-s-s-…" her mouth felt dry. He was not wearing a jumpsuit, so was he even part of the pirate crew…?

"Mm?"

"I-I'm sorry" she quickly bowed low.

"You must be the new cabin girl."

"I think the captain called me a prisoner…" the big man growled instantly in response and she quickly corrected herself, "or…a cabin girl I am!"

"Are you lost?" His voice was unusually deep, she felt her whole body shook every time he spoke.

"N…no…" her brain was instigating the fight or flight response, and it was telling her to fly far, _far_ away. But, her body failed to even respond.

"You are a terrible liar." He simply said.

"What?" She was confused, how could he know she was lost?

"I saw you running back and forth this corridor many times, it was getting annoying." Upon hearing his reason, it made more sense why he knew she was lying. But she wished he did not ask her if he already knew! She peered behind the man and she realized it was a dark room with many flashing buttons.

The big man interrupted her observation of the room behind him. "So, where do you need to go?"

She quickly paid attention to the man standing in front of her and replied hesitatingly "Th-the shower room."

"I will take you there."

"Ah! No need" She indicated with her hands in a stop-sign motion. "I'm sure you have a lot of stuff you need to be doing. I can… get there by myself." She tried to laugh politely but it just came out as a nervous one-toned laughter.

The big man glared down at her for a moment. She felt her body shrink, "You should fix that problem."

"…Problem?"

"Captain doesn't like liars."

She blushed deep crimson, being called a liar constantly was starting to hurt her pride. It was not like she wanted to lie. It was just her defensive mechanism when she was scared. "I'm… not lying because I want too…"

The big man ignored her and walked past her. "Come." She nodded stiffly and followed right behind him.

~.~

She wanted to slap her forehead when they arrived to the shower room. It was actually down the right to the infirmary. Also, upon further inspection of the shower room door, lo and behold, it had a small sign that said SHOWER ROOM. She wanted to slap her forehead multiple times, how could she have missed that? She noticed the giant man turning to leave. She gave a short bow. "Th-thank you mister…"

He turned around briefly, "Jean Bart." His voice was very low, it sounded like he was growling at her every time he talked. She gulped nervously and her nod became strained. She continued to stare at the large back until it disappeared from her view. She let out a heavy breath. He looked like he had not cracked a smile in ages.

"He's not much of a talker." She heard an unfamiliar male voice and she shrieked in surprise. She heard a juvenile laugh, and she noticed it was the same red haired man who informed Penguin of leaky pipes back when they were in the infirmary room. She continuously stared at the man, dumbstruck, until he asked, "Are you taking a shower?" She snapped out of her daze and nodded shyly. "I can keep watch for you, so no one can enter when you're showering."

"R-really?" She asked, her eyes glimmering in happiness. Maybe the dirty look he gave her last time was just a trick of the light. He was actually a kind pirate, like Penguin and Bepo.

"Sure, Why not?"

"Thank you, Mister…"

"Shachi, I believe you met me before." She nodded and gave him a wide smile. He returned the gesture which only made her happier.

"I'll be quick, Mister Shachi." She gave a short bow, and entered the shower room.

"Take your time" he gave her a toothy smile and waved. After the door shut, his face instantly turned dark, he snickered wickedly, "take your time indeed."

~.~

It was dinner time for the Heart pirates, and this was the first time Candy sat with the whole crew. She was introduced as the new cabin girl even though the Captain specified she was a prisoner. She saw Jean Bart taking up three seats, and it looked a bit comical to see him use cutlery that were clearly too small for him.

The plates clinked and clanked, and it was dead quiet. Law noticed the dark stares given to Shachi by Penguin, and Candy was looking down at her soup unable to look at anyone. Shachi just hummed happily as he ate remaining oblivious by two clearly distraught people.

Bepo finally said, "Penguin, Candy. Are you guys feeling unwell?"

Both Penguin and Candy blushed heavily. They did not, well could not give a response. Shachi just sniggered at their expressions. Candy could not look at anyone and continuously fiddled with her spoon, her soup remained untouched. Penguin, unable to hold the awkward atmosphere any longer, banged his hand against the table. Everyone shifted their attention to Penguin due to his sudden disruptive action. Penguin stood up and accusingly pointed his finger at Shachi.

Candy's eyes widened as she knew Penguin was about to confront the incident with Shachi in front of everyone. Before Penguin even opened his mouth, she stood up and covered his mouth. Penguin looked at Candy bewildered, and she shushed him. She tried to signal with her eyes that Captain was here, and she did not wish to share this incident. Penguin remained oblivious, but Law began to take interest after seeing the girl so frazzled.

"Is something the matter Penguin?" Law casually asked to Candy's horror. Her hand instantly slacked and Penguin nodded feverishly.

Candy just laughed nervously and slapped Penguin's back… hard. She gave another hard pat on Penguin's back. "Ah, it's nothing Captain. Penguin was just over reacting, it's nothing to be concerned about!"

Law gave her a quick glance, "I was not asking you Miss Candy." She instantly shut up, and tightened her jaw. Law looked at Penguin expectantly, and Penguin gulped.

"Shachi made me walk in on Candy, so I want Shachi to apologize!" Penguin finally said. Candy's face blenched, and Law only looked impassive at the two of them.

"Oh, is that all?" Law simply said, and continued with his meal at his own leisure.

Candy's mind was screaming at the captain. 'What does he mean, _is that all_, a man walked in on ME when I was naked!' She noticed Shachi's crooked smile, and both Penguin and her slumped back in their chair. The meal resumed in peace, and only the plates clinking was heard. One by one the Heart pirates were done their meal. Before Penguin left with Shachi for their look out duty, Penguin pulled out a worried face. He patted her shoulder in reassurance before he left her with Captain who was still eating his meal at a slow pace. They were sitting at the opposite ends of the table, and they were the only ones left finishing their meals.

Candy stared despairingly at her soup, she can still remembered the incident as clear as day.

_It was calming in the shower. The water pattered on her back in a therapeutic way and her skin had not felt this fresh, this clean. _

_After she was done, she wrung the excess water from her hair and got out of the shower stall to get a towel. She did not notice someone was in there until she heard something drop to the floor with a clatter._

_She looked to where the sound was made, and noticed two feet. Her eyes slowly climbed up the body, mind hoping that this was an apparition, a mirage until she noticed a cucumber in all its' glory. She shrieked and a male voice screamed as well. He quickly covered his cucumber and she quickly squatted to cover her front. _

"_C-Candy?"_

_A familiar voice. "Mr. Penguin?" She looked at him in horror. Penguin quickly ran and wore his jumpsuit and threw her jumpsuit with had his back turned._

"_Q-Quickly! C-c-change!" he stuttered out._

"_R-r-right!" _

She flinched at the vivid image of Penguin's cucumber. She felt her face become steaming hot, this was her first time seeing a man naked… and having a man seeing her naked. After they both calmed down, Penguin explained to her that Shachi never mentioned she was in the shower. Shachi just told him that the water was going to be shut down for maintenance, so he thought showering early would be best. Penguin insistently apologized, and Candy tried her best to ease Penguin's guilty conscious.

She felt uncomfortable being with Penguin now, she probably cannot even face him anymore. She didn't understand why Shachi did what he did. She decided she was going to confront that evil red haired devil and force him to explain himself. The problem was, she did not really have the authority to demand an explanation since she was just a cabin girl, more like a prisoner. She sighed. "I'm in a pickle…" Just then she slapped her forehead, suddenly remembering Penguin's cucumber and she realized she cannot talk or think about anything that has the same physical property as a cucumber.

"What's that about a pickle?" a low voice interrupted her thought.

She jumped, she forgot the Captain was still in the same room as her! Her face started to heat up when the Captain was staring at her. "N-nothing. I was just day dreaming…" Captain gave her a curt nod and began to collect his dishes. She stood up, "It's okay, I can clean up Captain!" Captain ignored her, and walked into the adjoining kitchen. She picked up her dishes and followed him in. She was greeted by the Captain's back, doing his dishes. She walked until she was next to him, and set her plates on the counter next to him.

She noticed different patterned tattoo on his arms and fingers. She paid the most focus on the letters that were tattooed on each of his finger. It spelled out: "D E T H." She winced, the captain was such a creep. He meticulously checked each of his dishes and his utensils before he started to rummage through a pile of towel. He picked each one up and inspected the towel, before picking another towel, he repeated the process three or four times. He finally settled on a grey towel, and he began to dry his dishes.

She wondered if the captain thought she would do an awful job at cleaning dishes, "Captain, could it be that you don't trust me to wash the dishes?" She waited for an answer. There was a slight pause in his movement before he continued his task.

"Yes."

Lest to say, she was outraged, how can anyone mess up washing dishes? "Captain, it's just washing dishes though, I can do that much!" She never wanted the dish washing job in the first place, but the fact is she liked to take pride in whatever task she needed to complete. The captain finished with his small chore, and placed his dishes and silverware in a cabinet above the sink. He remained uncommunicative, and to her disappointment he started to leave the kitchen. She heard the door creak open, but she did not hear the door shut. She turned back and saw the Captain staring back at her.

"There's a small shower room, two doors down, pass the navigation room." She quirked her head to the side, she has no idea where this conversation as going.

"Huh?" Was the most intelligent response she could muster up at that point.

"No one uses it because of its leaky pipes, and quite a hefty amount of mold has grown in there." She continued to stare blankly; however, the captain heed her no attention and continued to talk. "This shower room has a lock. I suppose if someone took the time to clean out the room and fix the pipes, then it should be useable again." At that, he took a swift turn and left the kitchen, the door softly clicked. She stared at the closed door momentarily before the line of logic finally connected in her brain, he was helping her! She picked up her pace, and burst out from the kitchen. Fortunately, the door of the dining room just shut closed, the captain was not too far from her. She opened the door just in time to see the captain walking down the dimly light hall way.

She gathered up her courage and called out, "Captain!" He stopped mid step and turned around to acknowledge her presence. She gave out a confident smile, "Captain! My job states that I'm in charge of dish washing and cleaning duty until the aforementioned work term ends!" He stared vacantly at her. She just realized she randomly shouted out her job title so proudly. But seeing how the captain was waiting for her to continue on, she cleared her throat. "S-so that means, it's only natural that I would do your dishes too… captain."

Law did not give her a reply and she could feel her chest tighten, and her face heating up. She had no idea what she was talking about anymore. Luckily the captain ended her self-inflicted torture and said, "Okay." She stared back at the captain, confused. "But if I get sick from the dishes you cleaned Miss Candy, I cannot guarantee that you will be able to biologically maintain life any further." His voice was low and threatening, and she nodded precariously. Law turned his heel once again, his body devoured by the shadows.

"Did he just say that he will kill me in a very indirect manner?" she asked to no one in particular.

She realized right there and then that her life depended on her ability to wash dishes.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sweet as Candy**

_..._

_By: M. Mellow_

_Edited By: Naash_

_..._

((Chapter 4))

Jean Bart was many things, he was a captain of his own pirate crew, he was once a slave, and now he was the navigator for the infamous Heart Pirate crew. His goal was to navigate through the New World and realize his Captain's dream of finding One Piece. Now, he understands relying on your common sense will only lead you to your own death bed in the New World, which was why despite his better judgement he piloted the ship to follow where the log pose dictated. He had a bad premonition about this. He stared intensely at the three log pose, and its' arrows all pointing in one direction without a single waver in sight.

~.~

Penguin and Shachi were looking through the periscope in the watch room. They saw the dark blue horizon where the sky and sea met. The waves were calm, and not a single ship was in sight.

"Shachi…" Penguin started.

"Hm?" Shachi hummed in reply.

Penguin looked a bit disgruntled. "Why did you do that?" he was referring to the shower room incident with Candy.

Shachi let out a heavy breath. "The better question is, how could the ship's mechanic believe such an obvious lie?"

Penguin gave a vacuous stare, before his mouth opened in realization. There was never any shower maintenance, because he checked the pipes the day before and he was the one who fixed the leaky pipes, he mentally slapped his forehead.

Shachi just looked at him expectantly. "I know you like her man, I was just doing you a favour."

He could feel a growing vein popping on his left temple, "A favour? I flashed her!"

Shachi just grinned in response, "You gotta admit, that was pretty funny." But seeing Penguin's less than bemused face, he decided to cut the jokes for now. "Listen, I've seen you chase countless of girls. And I've seen you get rejected, beaten by the girl's boyfriend, and pummeled by the girls you flirted with…"

As Shachi continued the relentless list of him getting rejected by girls, he grunted and cut him off short, "and your point is?"

"The point is, this Candy girl will be no different." Shachi looked sheepishly at him. "I just think it's for the best if you don't get too attached to her."

"It's not like I like her!" Penguin exclaimed.

Shachi looked at him with the 'I-doubt-it-look'. "Just, I'm saying to let this one go man. We can find new hotter girls when we land on an island with a town."

Penguin closed his eyes for a moment, and then he looked at Shachi with a mischievous smile.

"Wh-what?" Shachi cringed, he hated that look, nothing good ever comes out of it.

"I see why you're acting this way."

"What?"

"You like her!" Penguin smiled brightly.

"Huh?" Shachi's face dead panned.

"I mean it makes sense why you keep on trying to split me and Candy apart…"

"…No. I really don't like her." Shachi said in a monotonous tone.

"Listen, Shachi." Penguin started and placed both of his hands, one on each Shachi's shoulders, he gazed into Shachi's eyes. Shachi faltered a step back, the sudden intimate contact caught him off guard, "I admit, maybe I did fancy the new girl a bit. But come on, we're in a ship filled with men! That's to be expected." He emphasized his point by slightly shaking Shachi back and forth.

"So…what are you saying…?" Shachi diffidently asked.

"I'm saying that you were always my wing man through thick and thin." Penguin's hand dropped from Shachi's shoulder, he slightly tilted his head down so his hat could cast a shadow over his eyes. "So, this time, I'll back off. You can have her." Penguin gave him a thumbs up.

"…" Shachi was left speechless, was it this possible for someone to be this dense?

Penguin turned his heel and left. "Where are you going?" Shachi asked, confused by his crewmate's sudden actions.

"I feel a bit tired, so take care of the look-out duty for me, 'kay?" Penguin waved his hand nonchalantly before stuffing his hands in his pocket and left the room.

Penguin closed the door behind him, he gave out an arduous sigh. "She's just like all the other girls I flirted with…"

~.~

Candy gritted her teeth, and beads of sweat were evident on her face. She wanted to clean off the dining room table as quickly as possible and check out the shower room the captain mentioned to her. She thought of stacking all of the plates at once was a smart idea, except she arranged the plates and bowls in such a way that it was tittering dangerously, almost in the verge of collapsing and meeting its short lifetime. Her knees were shaking as she balanced the leaning tower of ceramic, she slowly made her way in to the kitchen. She finally got to the kitchen counter and placed them with a small thud.

'Note to self. Don't mix up the bowls and plates; just put the plates on the bottom and the bowls on top!' She wiped the sweat she accumulated with her sleeves. "Okay! Time to wash…" her sentence was cut off midway because of the horrific scene she was now witnessing. She just noticed how dirty the kitchen was. There were dirty towels on the ground, unknown liquid contents all over the floors, the cupboard, and the table top. Also, upon further inspection, the sink was all clogged up and brown water was sitting at the bottom of the sink. She was more shocked that she did not notice it the last time she was in here.

"I never knew it was humanly possible to actually prepare and cook food in such a condition." Her face paled and she felt sick to her stomach. She stared at the mess and only one person came into her mind. "Shachi…" she glared at the brown water sitting calmly in the sink, she suspected that he knew she had kitchen cleaning duty, so he must have purposely dirtied the whole kitchen to give her extra work! "That conniving, evil…red headed devil!" she exclaimed, and she jutted out her bottom lips, pouting that she cannot do anything but clean after his mess.

She clenched her fists. "Shachi, I'm going to clean so hard, that you won't even know what hit you!" She wanted to seem threatening, but after her words had settled in her head, she let out an exasperated sigh. "I sound so pathetic…" She rolled up her sleeves hesitatingly and gave out a loud gulp. "H-here I go…"

She scourged through the cabinets and drawers, and, after the longest time, realised that she could not understand their method of organization at all! There were random dishware and cooking utensils all over the place, and, what the heck, she even found a dirty sock under the sink! She was just about to give up, before she found new and still packaged cleaning tools. She could only sweat drop and think to herself, 'How long has it been since they last cleaned this kitchen?'

She rolled up her sleeves and took to the task of unclogging the sink with the plunger she found under the stove's drawer (what?) She could feel goose bumps running down her arms and the back of her neck. She was closing her eyes as she relentlessly churned the sink's drain. As soon as she heard a loud squelching noise indicating the sink was unclogged, she felt a rising chill throughout her body and her stomach roiled in disgust.

After what seemed like an endless amount of time slaving in the kitchen, she finally finished with the scrubbing, cleaning, mopping, polishing and organizing. She sprawled herself across the floor. "I never realize how white these tiles were…" She muttered to no one in particular as her index finger slowly trace a squeaky clean tile. The kitchen was indeed clean sans the dirty towels in the corner. She had placed all the bowls, cups and plates in one cupboard. She organized all the silverwares in a drawer. She found (hopefully) all the kitchen utensils and placed them in another drawer. She grouped the pots and large bowls in a cabinet. And she placed frying pans and skillets in the oven drawer. She also managed to find many kitchen appliances all over the place. She closed her eyes, the cool tile was nice against her back. She worked up quite the sweat and a nice cool shower sounded wonderful to her.

Suddenly her memory was filled with the traumatic experience of the incident of the girl meeting cucumber. She winced, cleaning the kitchen duty only relieved her of this horrific memory for a while before it came back in its full glory. She gave out a tired yawn to interrupt her raging mind. She looked around the kitchen and there was no clock to indicate how long she had stayed up to clean the kitchen. She was seriously contemplating why she even tried so hard to clean the kitchen in the first place.

She gazed at the ceiling in a daze, imagining how happy the captain would be for her effort. She could imagine the captain now, would he smile at her kindly? Actually, she knew exactly how the captain would act or rather the lack thereof. She 100% guaranteed that he would ignore her. Her cheeks were tinted red. She wanted to be praised by the captain, how childish.

She stayed lying down on the floor for a while. Her eyelids were slowly dropping heavily, she tried to keep her eyes open but it only gave out a burning sensation. She gave out one more tired yawn before she fell into a quiet slumber.

~.~

Her vision was blurry at first, but the color yellow was strikingly evident. She blinked her eyes away a couple of time before her eyes adjusted to the scenery before her. She was in a field filled with yellow daffodils. Her face cringed in disgust, daffodils were her least favourite flower, they never appealed to her.

"Candy?" A sweet voice was heard next to her, she recognized that voice. She felt her breath heighten, could it be? She turned her neck slowly and in all of its glory was her best friend, Sahra. She was sitting next to her, Sahra smiling warmly. The light breeze mingled with her long black raven hair. Her porcelain like skin twinkled under the warm sunlight.

"S-sahra?" Candy felt overwhelmed with mixed emotions of happiness and sadness. She has not had such a clear dream of Sahra ever since she came into this world. Her eyes shone in glee, "S-sahra, I –"Her breath hitched, her voice cut.

"You promise you'll never leave me Candy!" Sahra's hand was tightly woven around her neck, choking her. "You said you'll be with me!" Sahra's sweet voice changed to a lower pitch, her pupils dilated, and her wide eyes started to fill with a red substance. "Why, Why did you leave me?" The red substance that resembled blood trickled down Sahra's face and dripped onto Candy's cheeks.

Candy grasped desperately at Sahra's hand to try and loosen Sahra's hold on her. Candy's eyes were wet and her mouth was gaped wide open. She tried to inhale greedily for the much needed air but despite the efforts her lungs pricked painfully.

Is this how it ends?

~.~

She stood up in a panic. Her eyes were wide open, like a person possessed. She swallowed oxygen, panting heavily. Her hands around her neck relieved that no one was actually choking her and softly rubbed her neck. Calming down, she realised that she was still in the kitchen. She rubbed her eyes, she was still fatigued. It seems her nightmare made her sleep restless. She shuddered by the sudden chill that ran down her back. Sahra was scary when she was mad. Candy quickly shook her head to get the disturbing image out of her mind. She walked out of the kitchen and the adjoining dining room and made her way to her room to rest in a bed.

She stopped in the dark hallway, she realized they never assigned her a room. She gulped, was she supposed to sleep on the floor? She kept walking down the hallway until her feet led to the infirmary room. She knocked on the door softly three times and there was no answer. She decided sleeping here for 30 minutes could not hurt anyone. She will wake up before the captain gets here.

However, nothing is that simple.

~.~

The rest of the Heart's pirate crew was in the kitchen. Penguin and Bepo were amazed at how clean the kitchen is.

"Wow…It's so clean. The whole place is sparkling…" Penguin stared in awe.

"Candy is really good at cleaning…" Bepo stated.

"Of course she is. She's a woman." Shachi said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Penguin looked at Shachi dully. "Women hate sexist jokes involving the kitchen…"

Shachi only grinned in response. Law was actually surprised at Candy's cleaning capabilities. He walked near the counter and pointed at the coffee maker and looked at Shachi darkly. "I thought you said the coffee maker was broken."

Shachi could only laugh nervously. "I guess…it didn't…?"

Law looked around the room before asking, "Where are the coffee beans?" He did not care much for Shachi's excuse. All he wanted was a taste of bitter caffeinated hot drink on his tongue.

All the Heart Pirate crew sans the captain looked at each other, the whole reason why they hid and told a lie about the coffee maker was because their captain has been excessively drinking coffee. Shachi looked at Penguin warily, and Penguin only shrugged. Maybe, the captain will not drink coffee in vast quantities this time.

Shachi just sighed in defeat and pointed where his spice racks are. "O-over there…"

~.~

He sighed in comfort as he held the warm cup of coffee in his hands. How long has it been since he last had a coffee? The heart pirate sat around the dining room eating their breakfast in peace.

"I guess it's not a total loss that we let Candy work as a cabin girl, eh Captain?" Penguin asked.

Law took a small sip of coffee, his taste buds were dancing in joy at the familiar taste. He gave a short nod and he realized the girl was missing from the table. "Where's Miss Candy?" he asked to no one in particular.

The rest of the pirate crew shrugged, not really caring for the missing girl.

Law guessed she was probably in her room resting, he could only presume how long she stayed up to clean such a disorderly kitchen. "Bepo, bring a plate of food to Miss Candy once you're done." Bepo could only nod as his mouth was stuffed with food.

~.~

Bepo burst into the infirmary in great distress, "Captain! Candy is gone! I –" he was cut off short as Law pointed his finger at the sleeping girl in _his_ infirmary. Bepo quickly covered his mouth with his paws and whispered. "Sorry." He gave one last look at Candy and at his captain before he quietly exited the room.

Law admitted. He had not expected her to be in _his_ infirmary, much less sleep in here. He was about to wake her up but quickly decided against it. Considering it was she who found his beloved coffee maker he would let it slip for today. He continued to sip his beloved drink while flipping through another book in silence.

~.~

Candy slowly opened her eyes and got up from the bed, rather than the usual bleach smell, she could smell coffee? She rubbed her tired eyes and blinked several times to adjust her eyes to the dim lights in the infirmary. "Ah I see you are awake now, Miss Candy." She jumped lightly and saw the Captain sitting in his desk with a book in one hand, and a cup in another. So that was where the coffee smell came from, Candy reasoned.

"Ah…good morning Captain."

"Good evening Miss Candy." He responded back.

"E-e-evening?!" She was taken aback, she didn't expect to sleep for the whole day!

"Why were you sleeping in _my_ infirmary, Miss Candy?" She slightly cringed as he emphasized 'my'. He did not sound too happy at all.

"It's cause…I don't know how to get to my room. And I was only planning on taking a small nap…" She meekly responded, she only wanted to sleep for half an hour. She cannot believe she slept so peacefully with the captain occupying the same room as her!

"You room is two doors down to the right of the infirmary."

"…oh." She wished she knew that beforehand so she could have avoided this whole awkward confrontation. There was a stiff silence that followed right after. Candy did not know what to do, should she just leave, or make small talk and then leave? Her eyes shifted between the captain and the door. The door seemed to shine brightly to her, it seemed so much more inviting.

Law stood up from his chair, and her ears twitched as she heard the creak from his chair. Her body froze in fear, she could hear the light footstep approaching closer to her. He stopped in front of her before he sat at the foot of her bed. She could feel the weight shift towards the Captain.

"Miss Candy, I thought about many _methods_ to get you to start talking…" She felt her body go rigid, the way he said 'methods' brought a chill to her. "Do you know why I let you on my ship, Miss Candy?" She could only shake her head "no."

"I thought you would be able to relieve my boredom." She recalled him saying that before. "But now, I waited long enough. The truth is what I desire."

Candy finally took up the courage to stare into the depth of his eyes. She thought she was in good terms with him, she believed it, when he kindly told her about the shower room. But maybe it was only a mask of illusion, a bag of trickery and deceit. She feared that if she trusted the captain, he would manipulate her into acting according to his own affair. The things this man could do, just the thought of it, shook her very core.

The small silence broke between them. "Miss Candy. You have two choices." She waited for him to continue. She did not think it was wise to interrupt him. "Your first choice is to lie to me once more, and I promise you, death will be a luxury that you would want." his lips curved into a revolting smile.

Her body trembled uncontrollably, she could feel her body growing numb. Her stomach churned in discomfort. The way the captain's eyes gleamed in joy only worsen her body's condition "…or you tell me the truth, and I may spare your life if your answer satisfies me." He gave her one of his trademark smile. "Which will it be, Miss Candy?"

"I…" Her voice drew into a quiet whisper. "I might die either way then Captain."

"I don't need a dead weight on my crew, Miss Candy. If I find that you are nothing but an ordinary girl, I have no qualms in disposing you." His words slithered down her throat and were choking her, restricting her airway.

She did not want to die. Her eyes welled up in tears. Her vision of the captain became bleary. The fear he implanted in her, the way he can control her emotions, it was all overwhelming. One by one, tears started to roll down her face, she was simply defenseless. The captain just stared at her impassively, she could not face the captain and so her head hung low trying to get a hold of her tumultuous emotions. Law was tired of waiting for this girl to talk. He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him.

The sudden action of the captain touching her shocked her and by response she pushed the captain away from her. Her eyes widen instantly realizing what she did, her hands were still outreached in front of her. She was scared to look at the captain. He grabbed her wrists tightly, so tight that she could feel her bone crack. She yelped out in pain and tried to pull from his restraint. "Stop!" She yelled, the pain only worsen as he bend her wrist the wrong way. She tried to kick him away but that only led him to push her down on the bed. Her legs were trapped under him, he was straddling her thighs, and his body loomed threateningly over her.

She panted in exhaustion, she could not get her wrist free despite him using one hand to bound her. She could not fight him back, the sense of hopelessness evaded her mind and her body went limp. She only closed her eyes and looked away from him. More fresh tears escaped her eyes. "Miss Candy, you made the wrong choice." She could feel his hand over the zipper of her jumpsuit. She jolted her body in shock.

"Wh-what are you doing?" his hand did not stop, he was fiddling with her zipper. He would unzip her jumpsuit an inch every few seconds. She screamed but Law covered her mouth with his hand. She fearfully stared at his face, unable to read his blank expression. Her eyes pleaded for him to stop, and they stayed in this position for a few seconds more before his hand grabbing her wrist loosen. He got off of her and sat back down at the edge of her bed, unfazed by what he did to her and the effect it had.

She quickly stood up and covered her bare chest. A small whimper escaped her mouth. "Don't forget." His voice menacing, "You are weak." She only hugged her body tighter, she bit her bottom lip, trying to repress her harsh breathing. There was a deafening silence until a huge bang reverberated throughout the room. Both Candy and Law staggered in surprise. More disturbances rang throughout the ship. An alarm blared loudly, and she could hear heavy footsteps outside of the hall way.

Law squinted his eyes in suspicion. He stood up quickly and grabbed his sword. Before opening the door, he looked back at the frail girl still trying to maintain control over her emotions. "We will continue this conversation later." He said, and he could see her body go motionless. He quietly closed the door and left the girl alone.

After the door clicked shut, she could hear the captain's voice ringing inside her head. 'you are weak.'

~.~

"What's the situation Jean?" Law was the last to enter in the navigation room.

"It seems sea bats are attacking us cap't"

"Sea bats?" Law repeated. It was known that sea bats only dwelled in the deepest cave of the ocean floor. They were never above the surface of the ocean.

"Aye."

Law saw the worried expression in his crew's eyes, and they all braced themselves for more impacts from the sea bats attacking their submarine. "Can we shake them off our ship?"

"They seem to show no sign of leaving us alone, cap't."

"I see." He sighed, they were above the surface and he could hear multiple screeching from these sea monsters. "Then we fight." He simply said. Both Shachi and Penguin gulped.

The Heart pirates ran up the stairs that led to their deck. As Law opened the door, he took a slight step back in alarm. He could see hordes of sea bats of all different sizes damaging his beloved ship. One could mistake them as a dark cloud passing over them. The different tones of screeching got louder as they changed their attention from the ship towards him. He quickly unsheathed his nodachi, and with one sweep of his sword he sliced the first wave cleanly in half.

The sea bats flew upwards in the air for a short distance and arched back towards the submarine, seemingly the sea bats united attacks dispersed as the sea bats took to attack each Heart pirates individually.

"Looks like we're going to have sea bats for dinner." Shachi said as he kicked one of the sea bats in the head, hearing a satisfying crunch of its skull.

~.~

Candy quickly regained her composure. The only thing that was important was that nothing happened. She kept telling herself that he only did this to prove a point, and to intimidate her. She desperately tried to convince herself that while she rocked her body back and forth, hoping the repetitive action will calm her.

Suddenly, she heard a slam against the round windows of the infirmary. From afar, she saw a dark cloud hovering above the submarine. She crawled closer to the window and she quailed back in fright. It was not a cloud but bunch of creatures.

"What are they?" She asked to herself, she could only recoil in disgust as she noticed their whole body was covered in warts. They had a wide mouth with sharp teeth, and their wings were very bat-like. They shared a deep sea-green skin color, and a pair of big round eyes. These creatures continuously banged against the windows, and she swore it will crack if they continued to do so. She quickly ran to the bed and took refuge inside the covers. Her eyes were biting from crying, and despite the dark fear the captain brought inside her, she also felt secure when she was with him.

She hated herself for being weak, but she desperately wanted the captain to be with her, simply because the weak depended on the strong.

Unbeknownst to her, she uttered, "Captain…save me…"


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: **Sorry for the late updates. I'm trying my best to have regular updates. I was diagnosed with 'I-can't-work-during-summer' disease. Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

**Sweet as Candy**

…

_By: M. Mellow_

_Edited By: Naash_

…

((Chapter 5))

A seabat shrilled in anger as it exposed its' sharp canine-like teeth and dove straight for Law's head.

_Seabats._

_They are notoriously known for the fact that when they feast on their prey, they feast on the brains first. Not much is known about these sea creatures except that they dwell in the deepest part of the underwater caves and are rarely encountered by humans. _

Law quickly sidestepped to the left and the unfortunate creature bashed his own skull onto the submarine deck. "Not that smart are you?" Law taunted with a smirk and cleanly beheaded the creature.

"Captain! There's no end in sight!" Penguin yelled in dismay as he pointed at another dense cloud of screeching seabats. Their wings were beating ferociously and their attacks were becoming more aggressive and reckless.

Law clicked his tongue in annoyance, he could feel the heavy weight resting on his eyelids. He had not slept properly for the last few days and the lack of sleep was finally taking a toll on his mind and body. He swiftly dodged to his right and swung his sword downward. "Tch." He said as the blood sprayed onto his shirt, "not a clean cut."

~.~

In the infirmary, Candy was fighting back her tears with eye bats and eye rubs. She did not deserve to cry, if she only told the captain the truth the first time maybe she would not be in this uncompromising situation.

A loud thud resounded in the room; she shifted her gaze to the round windows and saw hideous flying creatures trying to crack open the window. They kept trying and trying and trying but to no avail. At first she was scared out of her wits but seeing how resilient the windows were, it gave her a feeling of being safe. She pulled her legs towards her chest and leaned her forehead against her kneecaps.

God. Only God knows how much she wanted to run away, away from the captain, away from the submarine, and away from this world.

"_Why are you scared?"_A ghostly voice floated into her ears.

At first Candy thought she was hearing things but the room abruptly went silent, even the creatures thumping hard at the windows eerily disappeared. Although happy that the creatures had left, she could not shake away coiling feeling inside her stomach.

"He-hello?" Candy knocked her forehead to her knees due to her foolishness. There was no one in the room; therefore, the voices were probably all in her head. Although, now that she thought about it, that assumption did little to lighten her mood.

"_Why are you scared?"_

Candy felt her blood curl. This time she definitely heard someone speaking to her. 'Oh my god, could this be it? Am I finally losing my sanity? With everything that has happened so far, I would not be surprised.' She cleared her throat. "Oh good spirit one, please don't haunt me!" she cried out loud to the ceiling, her arms outstretched but the ghostly wail continued to ask her the same question, over and over again.

"_Why are you scared?"_

She looked around the room, eyes wide, she was joking in the beginning but now this was starting to get serious.

"_Quo will save us."_

Her hands started to get clammy, she could feel thousands of ants marching up her back. Who was this Quo? She did not know.

"_Why are you scared?"_

Candy clutched the bed sheets tightly. She could feel droplets of perspire sliding down the side of her face despite the room being quite chilly.

"_Quo will save us"_

She did not understand what this person was saying, but the voice was getting louder. Goosebumps began to spread on her arms.

"_Why are you scared?"_

The voice was accompanied with a high pitch static noise and her head felt like tiny pitchforks jabbing at her skull. She held her head and massaged it softly, but the pain would not ease. The ringing sound was reverberating throughout the room, and she collapsed onto the bed, wringing the sheets to try to toughen out the pain. She gave small shallow breaths and her eyesight began to fade to black.

~.~

Law was starting to grow impatient as the endless stream of Seabats came onto them. Everywhere he looked the Seabats were there, readying their next line of assault. He gave a quick surveillance to see his crew's physical status, it was less than satisfactory to say the least. Their postures were fatigued, injuries although not serious but many and their attacks have slowed down considerably. He knew that their medical supplies were dwindling low, and they cannot afford to use up all the medical supplies before they reached the next island to restock.

A howl of pain was heard to his left. Shachi was on the floor, clutching his left forearm in pain. Great. His supply of stitches has just finished since Shachi would probably need the last of his supplies. He needed to end this battle before his crew sustained more injuries.

Pointing the tip of his sword in the direction of the massive ball of the annoying creatures, he took a calm deep breath and focused gathering his energy in the pit of his stomach. He, then, released the energy, coursing it through his entire body. He gritted his teeth and took one step forward and swung his nodachi into a giant X shape. The sword sliced through the air with a burst of energy. It decreased the Seabats number considerably.

Law glared at the Seabats, his body glowing of power. The rest of the Heart pirates felt their body go slightly stiff by their captain's strong will. The Seabats felt intimidated at the show of power. Slowly their attacks slowed and they retreated into the sea from where they came from.

After the Seabats were nowhere in sight, Law dropped down to his one knee. He was drenched in perspire. He was exhausted to say the least. He took deep breaths to slow down his rapid heartbeat. He stood up back again and walked towards Shachi.

"How are you feeling?"

Shachi winced in pain as he showed the captain the wound. Law noticed that the cut was not too fatal but as he predicted, it needed some stitching and disinfectant. "Just keep applying pressure and come down to the infirmary," he told the captain. "The rest of you, go clean up this mess."

Law pointed at the many discarded carcasses strewn across their floor.

"Ah wait! Try to salvage some meat if you can!" Shachi exclaimed.

"Eugh, we're gonna eat these things?" Penguin crinkled his nose in disgust.

"Yea, our food supplies are really low, and we can't get too picky you know!"

~.~

Candy woke up in a field of yellow daffodils where she had first met the crazy version of Sahra. She gazed around for a sign of life in the fields. She spotted blonde hair from afar.

Candy took a step forward. She had a strong feeling that the figure looks familiar. Curiosity taking the better of her, she gathered her limited courage and quickened her pace towards the look-alike in a beige jumpsuit.

The woman still did not notice her despite Candy being right behind her. Candy tapped the woman's shoulders but the woman did not turn around to acknowledge her presence. Candy puffed up her cheeks in annoyance, and circled around the woman to see her face. Sure enough the woman's face was exactly identical to her's. However, that was the least of her worries.

The woman's face was hallowed of any expressions, and her hand was pressing down on an open wound on her chest. Blood was seeping through her jumpsuit and dripping down her fingers on the once yellow daffodils.

Candy took a step back in shock before tripping over her own feet and falling backwards. "Who- what…"

The bony hands that were soaked in the woman's blood slowly reached out to her showing the bloody gaping hole in her chest. A whimper escaped Candy's lips.

In a hoarse voice, the woman before her croaked out in much difficulty, _"Don't… kill… me…"_

~.~

Law entered the infirmary with Shachi following close behind him. He saw the girl sleeping in one of the hospital bed.

"Man, Candy's got it pretty easy, eh, Cap't?" Shachi snorted as he pointed at the sleeping figure. Law said nothing and continued to rummage through his medical supplies to stitch up his comrade's wound.

'There goes the last kit.' Law took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. As a doctor, it was nerving to have such little medical supplies. He scowled at the girl sleeping peacefully on the bed; a lot of his expensive medical stash was spent on _her._

~.~

Candy woke up with a start. Everything was just a dream. She was starting to worry about these constant nightmares plaguing her dreams. She heard the familiar sound of paper pages flipping. The captain was in the infirmary room she deduced. How long has she been sleeping for? She looked out the window and the sun was just beginning to set. A shadow casted over the captain's face.

"I see that you are finally awake." His smooth voice made her shudder. Law set his book down on the table and began to lazily make his way towards Candy. "I was waiting for you." Candy could not help but to blush, because she suddenly remembered a romance movie she watched with Sahra as the lead actor confessed and the same exact words to his lover. She quickly cleared her head of the random thought. She sat up from the bed and gave her full attention to the stoic captain.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Captain." She cautiously replied.

Law sat down on the foot of her bed, and it felt like déjà vu. She crossed her arms across her chest, remembering that fateful incident. Law noticing the obvious tension rising from her shoulders, and her downcast eyes, clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Both of them were silent and still, not even a twitch of a hand was visible. Law stared right at her. She started to squirm under his heated gaze.

He observed the girl in front of him, she could not be any older than 20? Her blonde hair gave a fair orangey-red tint from the setting sun, and she had a petite build. She showed many signs of being a simple weak village girl; however, one cannot be too careful of strangers, especially, if she really was part of the marine. His crew…or what was left of it could be in trouble.

He finally gave out a sigh of resignation. He is sick and tired of playing mind games with this dull girl. Not to mention the only thing he could think about in his mind is just to get a good night rest. He pinched the bridge of his nose to focus on what was at hand.

"Miss Candy."

"Y-yes captain."

"As you know, for the past few days I have been trying to get valid information out from you."

Candy gulped, tucked her knees beneath her chin and tried to curl up into a tight ball. 'What was he going to do?' She was freaking out in her mind. Her eyes started to water, was he going to continue where he left off?

"Why were you at the marine base?"

"hu-huh?" Candy blinked in surprise. "You mean… we're not going to…do it…?" she asked dumbly.

Law just stared back at her mildly confused, 'what was this girl spouting about now?' "Do what?"

"Well," Her face was now flushed red, she tried to cover her face with her bangs. "I mean… you were… doing stuff to me before you left… so I thought…"

"No." He simply replied.

Candy could feel the steam rising from her face, she was happy that she was being reassured that no physical activity will take place, but she was embarrassed to have to even ask that question to the cold and secluded captain.

"I'm not interested in little girls." Law added as an afterthought.

Her body froze, 'little?' She looked down to her chest, they were not little, they are of normal size. "You… You saw?" her face went pale as she clutched her chest with her arms tighter.

"No, but considering how one of my crewmate saw your body with ease, I am sure it is nothing to shout about."

If Candy should be swallowed up by the sea, it would be now. She blushed at the memory of Penguin walking in on her when she was in the showers. "They're not little." She managed to murmur weakly.

"I was talking about your age."

"…oh."

Another moment of silence fell upon them. It was awkward being in the room alone with the Captain. She wished Bepo or Penguin would be in here with her. Heck, Shachi was just as welcome to join them if he wished.

The sun was finally saying its' final goodnight to the world as the last ray of light disappeared into the horizon. Both Candy and Law was sitting in the darkness, Candy realized that not having to see the Captain's face so clearly was strangely easing her nerves.

"Captain?" She meekly called out.

Law did not respond, he stood silent and just waited for her to continue on.

"It's hard to answer your question…because I don't think you will believe me." Candy pleadingly wanted the Captain to drop the topic and just let her off on the next island.

"Try me."

She cringed from his answer, she had a feeling he would say that.

"The thing is…I don't think what I know…is correct." She ended awkwardly. She really did not want to tell the Captain she came from a weird portal, because that would just be calling on an instantaneous death by now. She just hoped the captain would understand.

Law finally spoke out softly with a sharp edge in his tone. "So you're saying you don't know anything right now?" He gave a scoff of derision. This woman was clearly lying, and being together for more than one week, worrying whether she may be a marine spy or not has finally snapped his mind. Marine spy or not this girl was better off dead then being on his ship, he finally concluded.

"It's not that…" Candy's voice went quieter, she felt threaten being near the captain "It's more like… the answer is not really clear?"

There was another bout of silence before Candy heard a small dark chuckle. "You're telling me to believe that you were at the marine base for no apparent reason?" She felt the weight at the foot of her bed lessen. She saw the dark figure, most presumably the captain, walking towards his desk. He reached behind his desk and grabbed his freakishly long sword. She jumped back in alarm, and quickly stood up from her bed.

"I don't believe that you were at Marine Base 44 for no apparent reason, Miss Candy."

She felt a lump in the back of her throat. "Cap-captain…" Her body felt like it was getting wrapped around by an invisible rope, tightening its' grasp at every second. It was getting harder to move, the air was getting heavier and it was proving more difficult to breathe. She finally collapsed to her knees, and her head was struggling to look up. She could hear the ominous footsteps approaching closer to her.

She heard the sickening sound of the blade unsheathing, and the blade glinted eerily ready to consume her blood.

"Marine Base 44…their captain is known to finish off what they had started. It's not strange if they might send one of their soldiers on my ship."

"Cap…tain…" She struggled to say his name once more. She felt the cold metal press against her neck. The familiar scent of rubbing alcohol was present in the air.

"I must say, you put up quite the charade."

She mustered enough strength to grab the hilt of Law's sword and she tried to push it away, but the attempt was useless. She gasped out as the sword pressed harder against her neck. She could feel something wet dripping down her neck.

"I might as well put down a miserable, weak little creature like you, don't you agree?" Law gave her a wide smile, he was unrelenting and cruel.

She shut her eyes, there was no way she could escape this. If Quo or whatever was here, would it save her? "Captain…I'm not a marine…"

"Staying loyal to the end? I admire your loyalty Miss Candy."

"I'm not a marine." Tears were pouring down from her eyes, "I'm…not a marine…" she repeated again.

There was a sudden knock at their door, "Captain?" It was Bepo.

Both Law and Candy stood still in their positions. "Captain? Dinner is ready!" Law did not take his eyes off of Candy, and she was frozen in place. She could feel his warm body press against hers.

After much silence, the doorknob started to rattle open. "Captain? Are you there?"

"I heard you Bepo." Law finally replied before Bepo opened the door.

The heavy tension in the air was momentarily released, and Candy found it easier to breathe. The pressure against her throat disappeared as well. "I'll give you until after dinner to tell me your answer Miss Candy." His voice cut sharply through her. "After all, it would be a shame if I killed you after all the effort I put in." Candy only clutched her neck to stop the flow of her blood. "I look forward to our talk, Miss Candy."

As soon as she heard the door click shut, Candy collapsed to the ground. How will she answer the captain? Could the voice be referring Bepo as Quo? After all, Bepo's interruption saved her life.

Captain was so angry at the idea of her coming from Marine base 44. Could something have happened there? She shook her head clear of all the unanswered questions, for now she needed to escape. There was no way the Captain would believe that she came from another universe. Even she would not believe such a tale.

She struggled to stand up, her neck was in pain, but she ignored it. She slipped out of the infirmary, and ran straight towards the exit of the submarine. She got out of the submarine and a gust of cool sea breeze greeted her. She balled her hands into a fist, where could she possibly escape to in the middle of the ocean?

If she jumped off the submarine, could she possibly swim to the next island? Her fingers lightly traced the wound from the Captain's sword, the blood had dried up but there was still a sensation of stinging pain. She bit the bottom of her lips trying not to cry, the feeling of helplessness and dread finally setting in her mind. Her knees buckled, she stared into the vast deep blue ocean.

She was trapped.

~.~

The Heart pirates were all sitting in their usual spot, they were happily chatting away regarding today's event.

"-and so, that's how I defeated three Sea Bats all at once, I saved your ass Penguin!" Shachi snickered in glee. "I have my battle scar to prove it!" He proudly showed his stitched up arms to his fellow crewmates. Everyone seemed less than interested.

"Yea, Yea" Penguin brushed off the story and continued to prod at his food. "Why are we eating sea bats for dinner again?" He flipped over the meat in disdain.

"Food is food, can't get too greedy." Shachi just replied matter-of-factly. "By the way, where's Candy, Captain? Is she still sleeping?"

"She is resting."

"Huh?" Shachi and Penguin replied simultaneously.

"Shouldn't someone wake her up? It's dinner time." Shachi said matter-of-factly.

"She might be a spy from the Marine Base we just escaped from a couple weeks ago." Law replied calmly as he took a sip of his black coffee.

The dinner table stood silent, "She might be under… the order of that crazy Marine Captain?" Shachi managed to blurt out.

"No way! I mean… Candy is sorta…weak." Penguin added in.

Bepo nodded in agreement as well. They all stared at their captain for his response. "Regardless of her answer, I will still have to dispose of her."

"Dis-dispose? You don't mean to say you're going to…" Shachi and Penguin's eyes bulged out in surprise.

"But, Captain, is Candy really that dangerous?" Penguin was starting to feel a small ache in his chest.

"We are still far from an island, and we have not restocked in weeks. It's best to get rid of a dead weight in our crew." Law replied simply, as he began to pick at his rice.

"But she's been cleaning our kitchen and the submarine…" Penguin stuttered out, "I mean, other than that she can't do much, but I'm sure she can learn." Penguin looked at the rest of his crew member. "Come on guys! Say something!"

The rest of the Heart pirates understood the burden their Captain has to carry. They knew that after the Marine Base 44 incident, the marines ransacked their submarine and they were left with barely any food and medical supplies. Shachi looked at Penguin sympathetically, he knew that Penguin really adored the girl, but he was barely able to make decent food for five people, let alone for six. They also have been floating around in the Grand Line with no island in sight.

"Penguin." Shachi stared into Penguin's eyes seriously. "Let it go."

"Wh-what are you talking about? You can't possibly think killing that girl is a good idea? I mean, you're willing to kill her despite the fact she might not be a marine spy?"

"The captain's order is absolute. Don't forget that…Penguin." Shachi glared at Penguin.

"Got it." Penguin managed to mutter out. He too knew the hidden meaning behind his Captain's words, it was a simple question of either sacrificing one of the Heart pirates or an outsider. He knew the Captain will always pick his own crewmates life over an outsider any day. Despite the Captain's title of Surgeon of Death, he never fancied killing innocent people that had no relation to piracy or the marines. He turned towards his meal, finally accepting the girl's fate. For the captain's sake, he hoped Candy really was a marine spy.

The once happy atmosphere turned dark and only clinking of silverware was heard throughout the room.

~.~

"_Why are you scared?"_

Candy was leaning against the rails of the submarine. If Captain found out she was outside the infirmary room, he would definitely have a fit and kill her on the spot. Candy closed her eyes, bathing in the scent of the salty sea and the cool breeze. The same ghostly voice was talking to her once again.

"I'm scared because I'm about to be brutally murdered by this pirate captain." At this point, she stopped caring at the fact that she can hear voices and even responded to the voices in her head. She really has gone crazy, she concluded.

"_Quo will save us."_

Candy scoffed skeptically, "Yah? I would like to see that. If he could save me…that would be great…" Candy eyes glazed over to the full moon up in the night sky. The stars twinkled brightly, not a dark cloud in sight. She closed her eyes once again, listening to the ocean waves, "Sorry Sahra. It seems I might not be able to go home" Candy gave a crooked smile; she was just tired at this point. If this was just a dream that she could wake up from, she would never take her normal life for granted ever again.

_Shall I kill?_

"hu-what?" Candy was taken aback by the insinuation.

_Shall I kill?_

"Ho-how would you kill them?" Candy managed to mutter out.

_Shall I kill?_

"I don't know…would I be able to go home?" She was starting to feel a bit happy; she was seeing a glimmer of hope.

_Shall I kill?_

She looked down at her hands, remembering the images of the self look-alike woman with bloody hands. It would be so convenient if these pirates all died. But only the captain was the evil man… "Could you only kill the captain?" she whispered softly.

_Shall I kill?_

Candy felt a pang in her chest; she never knew the weight of those words. She felt guilty just having to utter those despicable words. The fact that the captain could easily say and be able to commit such heinous actions only proved that he is well versed in that field of death.

But if it means that she will survive, should she not take this as a saving grace? She had run out of options, if the captain did decide to kill her, then she would have to kill him first.

She stared back at her hands, the only problem was, she had no weapons. She felt a familiar presence towards the entrance of the submarine. There stood the dark captain with his sword in his hands. He was, as she predicted, less than pleased to see her outside of the infirmary.

_Shall I kill?_

The voice echoed inside her mind, her stomach protested in distaste. "Yes…" her answer scratched her throat painfully and left a bitter taste afterwards. "Please…"


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thank you everyone for being patient and review/favorite/follow my story. Was strongly contemplating in ending the story with this chapter.

* * *

**Sweet as Candy**

...

_By:MMellow_

_Edited By: Naash_

...

((Chapter 6))

The heavens above rumbled in distaste and the wind was picked up. Candy shivered as the cold penetrated through her flimsy jumpsuit. The captain slowly approached her. Every step he took, she felt the grim reaper dig the scythe deeper into her chest.

Unrelenting.

Cruel.

Yes, these words had passed through her mind many times over now. Her eyes burned at his Nodachi that was comfortably resting in his right hand.

A voice echoed in her mind, _"Shall I kill?"_ Candy clutched her head, this voice was not real.

Momentarily, the face of the captain was replaced by another person. It was a girl with long blonde hair wearing a beige jumpsuit. Upon closer inspection, the girl was faceless. She could hear the girl in her mind. It made her blood curdle.

"_Shall I kill?"_

Candy did not reply. She focused on her breathing, the feel of the waves rolling beneath her feet, and the low rumble of thunder.

"_Hey… shall I kill?" _The same voice urged once more.

"You're not real…" Candy said in a hush tone.

"_Hey… shall I kill you?"_

Candy's eyes widened in shock, she quickly looked up and saw the Captain's face looming over her.

"I was asking you a question Miss Candy."

"_Shall I kill you?"_ that sentence ominously echoed inside her head. "N-no…"

Law stared at her, a frown etched in his face. "That was not the answer I was looking for, Miss Candy." His voice was cool, leveled, and emotionless.

"I'm..Sorry. What was the question again?" Candy asked sheepishly, she tried to stay in control of her now spiralling emotions as much as possible. _The voice is not real…This voice is not real._

Law sighed irately, "I want you to tell me why you were at Marine Base 44."

The rest of the Heart Pirate crew were peeking through the door. They were too far for Candy to make out what facial expressions they were making. "I don't know why I was there…Captain."

She saw the slight twitch of the Captain's hand, dangerously looming over his nodachi.

She recoiled back in fear, she was going to end up like the girl in her dream with the open chest wound! "Captain…if I knew, I would tell you, honest!" Her voice rose up a notch; she could feel sweat rolling down the side of her face. Or was it the light shower of rain?

"You caused me a lot of trouble Miss Candy." Candy instinctively took another step back; her lower back was pressed against the rails. "You used up a lot of my limited medical supplies, you ate my crew's provision, and you made me play your little cat and mouse game." His tone had a slight mockery in them. "Just what am I going to do with you?"

"You… can drop me off at the next island, and forget any of this happened?" Candy replied, hesitant.

Law gave a small humored chuckle, "I suppose."

A small period of silence filled between them before Law spoke again. "Unfortunately, we haven't been so lucky in finding an island so far."

"I…see…" Her eyes shifted between the sea and the captain.

"Miss Candy, I grow tired of pondering on your origins." She braved her gaze towards him. "Whether you're a marine or a regular civilian, your fate will still be the same."

"… and that is…?" Candy knew what he was going to say.

"Death."

Her teeth started to grind together. "Wh-why? But, I…But…"

* * *

"Oy, Penguin! Stop pushing!" Shachi whispered harshly.

"I can't hear what they're saying!" Penguin replied, in the same harsh tone.

"I don't think we should be here guys." Bepo said matter-of-factly.

"We already know that!" Shachi and Penguin both bit back simultaneously.

"Sorry." Bepo's ears flopped downwards and his eyes casted downwards.

_So weak_… both Penguin and Shachi thought, dumbfounded.

"We already know what's going to happen to the girl. Do you honestly want to see her die Penguin?" Shachi looked into Penguin's eyes expectantly.

"I can't accept her death so easily! Captain…Captain would never kill an innocent girl. There's no way she's a marine… she didn't do anything wrong" Penguin voice lost its previous conviction.

"Captain would never kill an innocent person. You're right. But it's either one of us, or her."

"But why do we have to choose?" Penguin retorted back sadly, his fist was trembling, and his face was filled with a pained expression. "Is there _really_ nothing we can do?"

Shachi put his hand on Penguin's shoulder, and gave a remorseful look . He knew the girl has no chance of staying in the submarine especially since he had overheard the captain's conversation with Jean Bart.

* * *

_10 minutes ago…_

Shachi was on his way to the observatory room, when he came across the figures of Jean Bart and his captain. It seems that they were having a hushed conversation. Before they caught on his presence, he quickly hid behind the corner, and strained his ears to hear their conversation.

"Have you seen Miss Candy? It seems she escaped the infirmary room."

"Did you check up on the deck, Cap't?"

"No, I'll go there now." Law briskly walked past his navigator before abruptly stopping, "Tell the crew not to disturb me."

"Aye…Cap't."

Law raised an eyebrow, "Problem?"

"Just, are the food supplies and medical supplies that low, Cap't?"

Law took of his hat and ran his hand through his hair, "Figures you would catch on."

"It's just the girl can't be that bad. She don't seem to be real marine-like either."

"It's true that we are quite low on supplies, and if we had one less person on board, it would last us 3 days at most. However, the true problem lies in the fact that this girl is carrying an unknown virus."

"An… unknown virus?"

"Yes. During the time she was sick, I did some blood test, and it was never what I have encountered before. Luckily, it's not contagious as far as I know. But it's best to stay cautious around unknown pathogens." Law stared at his hands, "I can't save her."

"Cap't, why don't you tell the girl?"

Law gave a small scoff, "What would that solve? She's going to die either way." His eyes glazed over past Jean Bart, "Besides, I'd rather have her die cursing me as a pirate than to curse me as a doctor who couldn't save her life."

"The rest of our crew should know. They are questioning your call on killing her."

"Many of our comrades were lost during the marine base 44 siege. The possibility of a biological threat that is incurable with a potential to diminish our entire crew, that will only weaken their minds. _The sea is an unforgiving place for the weak_."

Law's words hung in the air.

Jean Bart closed his eyes, "I understand, Cap't."

* * *

"I…I don't want to die Captain." Candy finally found her voice. "I would do anything! I can't die right now. I still have to go back home, I still have to see my parents and Sahra!" Candy clutched on to the Captain's shirt, her eyes were too watery to see anything except for his blurred face.

His smirk was revolting; his eyes were dark and showed the evil in his nature. "We don't need a reason, Miss Candy. After all," Law took a hold of Candy's hand that was holding on to his shirt and threw her back. She slipped from the wet deck and fell on her back. Her tears were now intermingling with the rain, _when did it start to pour?_

Law crouched down to her eye level, the same smile not once being out of place. "We're pirates." He finished.

"N…no…" Candy could not help but bitterly think on how little she had lived her life. She shut her eyes, she could see Sahra with her downturn lips, a forlorn look in her eyes. Her parents weeping at the foot of her stone grave. Her neighbor's tabby cat, using her gravestone as a scratching post due to its sour temperament. "No…. no…. no…"

She heard the sword slowly unsheathe.

Even though she was scared, even though she was knocking at death's door, if she gave up now, if she gave up her _life_ to this man, she will never be able to forgive herself.

She mustered her might to glare back at the captain when the sword hung dangerously close to her neck. She grabbed the sword, the sharp blade piercing through her fingers and palm, crimson red blood dripped on to the deck, mixing with the puddle formed on the deck.

"Oh?" Law looked at her curiously, albeit fascinated as to what she was going to do.

She pushed the sword away from her surprisingly with ease; she stood up and tried to tackle Law down with her. _Tried _was the key term here. Instead she just awkwardly bashed her face against his hard chest. "Ah…ow…"

She could feel the soft rumble of the Captain's chest, he was laughing at her.

She took a few steps backwards feeling abashed, that bastard let her push the sword out of the way. He was toying with her. She bit her bottom lip, trying hard not to cry out loud in frustration, in despair, and in fear.

"Are you done?"

She nodded blankly, she could not do anything against this man. He was _always_ in control of their situation. He was the one who played games with her. Why did he give her hope? Why did he take care of her?

She could not hold back her tears anymore, it was not fair. Why her? Why _her_? A small hiccup escaped her throat, she looked back at the captain's face, "I don't want to die!" It was pathetic to beg for her life, but never did she once think of dying, it frightened her. "Tell me! Why do I have to die?" She was losing control of her suppressed emotions, she was searching for any answer that can perhaps keep her mind at ease. She did not want to die just because she was unlucky enough to land on a pirate ship.

For a moment there, Candy swore she saw the Captain's eyes soften, but as quickly as it came it disappeared just. "Miss Candy, close your eyes and count back from 10."

"H-huh…?"

_10_

"You won't feel it."

_9_

"Why?"

_8_

He drew back his sword.

_7_

"Tell me!"

_6_

She could see the glint of light from a passing lightning.

_5_

"Captain…"

_4_

"Captain!" She urged strongly.

_3_

She looked up at him, "Please…" her voice went hoarse.

_2_

She shut her eyes.

_1_

* * *

"_The sea is an unforgiving place for the weak."_ Shachi softly spoke as the girl collapsed by the captain's feet.

Blood started to pool from the girl's still body, Penguin brought his hand over his hat and covered his eyes. "Let's go guys, we shouldn't be here."

* * *

_It hurts._

Her breathing was growing shallow. She could feel the warmth of her blood blanketing the cool air.

_It hurts._

She could taste the metallic tang in her mouth, her eyesight was growing darker, the captain was talking but she could not hear anything.

_It hurts._

The sword punctured her chest, though the pain was only for an instant, the bitter taste of awaiting death remains.

_It hurts._

The captain's hand gently rested on her eyes, and her eye lids slowly closed.

There was nothing left of the world for her to see.

* * *

Law looked down at the motionless girl. She was still alive, but the shock rendered her pain receptors useless. "Perhaps if we were in a different situation…" Law sheathed his sword back to its home and gave her one last look. He turned his back from her, walking across the deck to the entrance of his ship. The door eerily creaked to a close. "It wouldn't have to come to this."


End file.
